15 years of Direct Provision

Minister for Education Jan O'Sullivan has said she is determined that students who have been in the asylum system in Ireland for five years will be entitled to pay the same fees as Irish students from September.

More than one-in-five had been there for over seven years.

Editorial on Direct provision

Stop the suffering. Stop the damage. Let people move on with their lives here in Ireland. Video © Paula Geraghty

Here’s a poem I wrote for Comhlamh fifteen years ago, on the introduction of Direct Provision. They launched a booklet and asked me to say a few words. I read the booklet, was horrified, and wrote this poem.  It’s with a sense of shame that I submit it, fifteen years later, with Direct Provision, supposedly introduced as a temporary measure, still in force. I’ll be performing it, with musical accompaniment by Brian Fleming, at the Sheehy-Skeffington Human Rights School in the Irish Institute Dublin on 18th April.

Sent in by Terrence. Images and quotes that encapsulate some elements of life in #DirectProvision15

#DirectProvision15 becomes #DirectProvision16 tomorrow. #EndDP

Bobby Gilmore ssc

Written by Mehari Fisseha

This contribution, from Dominic Thorpe, UCD College of Humanities, artist in residence.

Written by Stephen Ng’ang’a

Teresa, one of the asylum seekers gives a powerful speech.

Pako Mokoba presenting at the Oireachtas, 22 October 2014.

A special series by The Irish Times on life inside Ireland's direct provision system for asylum seekers

Laura Cashman speaks to a resident of the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre about the reality of living in Direct Provision in Ireland.