Racism in the west of Ireland and the Minister for Justice's recent initiative to integrate refugees into society will be on the agenda at a round-table discussion in Galway this week.
The controversial system of "direct provision", whereby asylum-seekers applying for refugee status are given bed, board and £15 a week without being allowed to find their own accommodation or choose their own location is also expected to be discussed at the conference, which is being hosted by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism this Wednesday. Asylum-seekers arriving since late last year have been sent to accommodation outside Dublin, due to the shortage in the capital, and are denied supplementary welfare allowance while not being allowed to work, even temporarily.
Whereas the accommodation in some areas is very good - as in Connemara, recently highlighted in this column - the conditions in other places are giving the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and many other non-governmental organisations cause for serious concern.
Dr Bryan Fanning of UCD's Department of Social Policy and Social Work, who is based in Ennis, Co Clare, says he has been told by a number of people working with asylum-seekers in hostels that many are depressed and find dormitory accommodation difficult, whether through loneliness, trauma or overcrowding.
Some are in rooms with people whose language they cannot speak, and hostel accommodation is "plainly unsuitable", he says, for families on anything but a short-term basis. "Although the Government has allocated more resources towards processing asylum claims, the possibility of long waits for determinations remains for many," he says.
Dr Fanning has welcomed the Minister for Justice's recently published integration policy for refugees, but says that its emphasis on inclusion sits uneasily with policies towards asylum-seekers which are "designed to be punitive". By being "forced to remain in hostels, discriminated against within the social welfare system and refused access to training", they are being discouraged from seeking refuge in Ireland in the first place.
"It is vital to plan for the integration of asylum-seekers at the outset," Dr Fanning says. "According to current figures, some 30 per cent of asylum applications are upheld at appeal.
There is a need to recognise that many may remain in the community where they are placed."
Poverty and exclusion will threaten community relations, he warns. "Asylum-seekers and refugees should be able to live in dignity, while receiving protection and being in a position to contribute to the host country."
Direct provision makes integration policies more difficult, he says, and he has already heard of attacks on, and verbal abuse of, asylum-seekers in towns around Ireland. On £15 a week, and £7.50 for children, asylum-seekers cannot hope to mix and meet in cafes and pubs with the indigenous community.
Nor does direct provision cover the cost of phone calls to home, or the cost of a bus journey to visit a friend. "Direct provision excludes asylum-seekers from Irish society," he says.
On a positive note, the new mediation service initiated by Pavee Point for the Travelling community was endorsed by the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Robert Molloy, in Galway last week.
The project is modelled on initiatives taken in the US regarding native Americans and the majority population, and similar moves in Australia to improve relations between Aboriginals and other sectors of the cultural mix there.
Designed by the late Mr John O'Connell of Pavee Point, it aims to head off or transform some of the potential flashpoints that can occur with greater frequency when Travellers take to the road during the summer.
Several members of the community have already been trained as mediators, and a series of regional workshops will be held. For more information, Pavee Point is at (01) 878-0255 or e-mail pavee@iol.ie