Residency Scheme for Long Stayer Asylum Seekers
One of the key recommendations of the Working Group on the Protection Process and Direct Provision was to implement a scheme which would begin to clear the ‘backlog’ of long stayers in the asylum system.
That scheme, which was agreed by all parties in the Working Group (including the Department of Justice), focused on giving leave to remain to those who had been in the system for five years or more, subject to certain conditions.
After the Working Group Report was published in June 2015, Nasc and the other NGOs who were part of the Working Group, called on the Government to immediately implement the scheme.
When Working Group NGOs met with Frances Fitzgerald in October 2015, she informed us that INIS was currently ‘working through the backlog’, but had not officially announced that the scheme was in place. (This is despite stating in the Dáil in December that the scheme was not yet enacted.)
At the end of October, Minister Aodhán Ó Riordáin stated on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme that the scheme was being implemented ‘informally’. Nasc immediately responded calling for transparency from the Department of Justice about the implementation of the scheme.
However, it has not been publicly announced and asylum seekers and those who advocate for them remain in confusion about what is happening and who is eligible.
Implementing the Scheme
Since those announcements by the Ministers, Nasc has actively engaged with asylum seekers to inform them of the scheme and to provide support for long stayers who may be eligible for residency.
To date, we have supported almost 60 families and continue to reach out to long stayers about the scheme. Already in the past month, 8 families we have supported have received their residency.
If you believe you may be eligible for the scheme, please click here for more information.
PLEASE NOTE: If you are currently 5+ years in the system but you have a Judicial Review case pending, DO NOT WITHDRAW YOUR CASE until you have received legal advice. If you do not have a solicitor, contact Nasc.
