THE GOVERNMENT is being urged to reduce processing times for refugees seeking to be reunited with family members in Ireland following the publication of a report showing Irish waiting periods to be much longer than those of other EU countries.
The Refugee Information Service report also said the number of refugees who reunited with family members, having been separated through forced or voluntary migration, was lower in Ireland than the EU average.
The report, “The challenges facing refugees, beneficiaries of subsidiary protection and persons granted leave to remain as they seek reunification with their families in Ireland”, was published by the service yesterday.
It said refugee reunification requests are processed in Ireland in an average time period of two years to 30 months, compared to an average of six to 12 months in Portugal, Germany, Malta and the United Kingdom.
Catherine Kenny, who wrote the report, called on the Government to ensure that requests were processed within six months, particularly those involving children.
Refugees generally become more self-sufficient and tend to integrate better if their family members join them in Ireland, said Ms Kenny, who worked with two focus groups in Galway and Dublin while researching the report.
The Refugee Information Service is a non-governmental body that provides support to refugees and asylum seekers.
Recommendations put forward by the service include the introduction of a system of independent appeal for refugees whose applications to be reunited with their family in Ireland have been refused.
Describing the recommendations as “achievable”, former head of the Equality Authority Niall Crowley, who acted as an independent equality consultant on the report, criticised the lack of an appeal system as “inequitable, unfair and inefficient”.
A total of 2,668 applications for family reunification involving 5,799 dependents were made in the period from 2003 until 2008.
Italy and Spain can take up to two years to approve family reunification while France is the only country surveyed which operates a similar time scale to Ireland, completing requests to reunite families in a period of two to three years.