A LIMERICK asylum seekers support organisation has said that measures purporting to be a way of allowing them to work are useless and unattainable.
Minister Charlie Flangan last week Charlie Flanagan announced details of how the Government intends responding to the Supreme Court ruling that people seeking asylum in Ireland be allowed to work if their cases are not resolved in a timely fashion.
Doras Luimní say that the government has now designed a system, which will make it “virtually impossible for most asylum seekers to work”.
The transitional measures will allow asylum seekers to apply to the Employment Permit scheme if they can secure a starting salary of €30,000 and contribute fees of €500 to €1,000.
Leonie Kerins, CEO of Doras Luimní said: “The interim measures announced by the Minister are immensely restrictive and unsatisfactory. The Employment Permit scheme is not an effective right to work for asylum seekers and will have little if any impact on the people subsisting in Direct Provision on an income of just over €20 per week, awaiting progress on their cases.
“We are disappointed to learn that so little progress has been made on this issue over the past eight months, since the Supreme Court judgement in May 2017. Minister Charlie Flanagan has simply announced his intention to further delay the implementation of work rights for asylum seekers, despite the clear requirement for action.”
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