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"There is a lack of clarity regarding which family members may be admitted to the State"

At all times during Metro Eireann’s phonecall to Sabine, a 22-year-old student in the Ivory Coast, the turmoil of her separation from family in Ireland is abundantly clear. “It’s very hard,” she says, speaking from the country’s commercial capital, Abidjan. “It’s very painful,” Sabine says more than once. She is not angry with Ireland, but says she hopes the “Irish Government will hear my call”. Sabine’s mother, Marie Claire Kah, lives in Ireland with the rest of her family – including a sister, Deborah, whom Sabine has never met. Marie Claire is a recognized refugee in Ireland, and has been here for nearly six years. Working as an administrator in Cork, Marie Claire fled her native land in 2002 when it began to erupt into civil war. Pregnant at the time, she said her finances only enabled her to leave the Ivory Coast alone, but that her intention was to reach a safe destination and to send for her children.

Marie Claire applied for asylum in Ireland, after paying to get out of her native country, and was granted refugee status in March 2003. Under refugee legislation, her school-going sons David and Joshua were permitted to join her – but Sabine, her eldest child, was refused permission as she was no longer under 18. However, Marie Claire says that Sabine was still aged under 18 when the application was made. A visitor visa application has also been denied for Sabine, on the basis that the State believes  she will subsequently not leave the country In Abidjan, Sabine seems extremely affected by the separation. She is “very close” to her mother. She lives with her grandmother and does not have any other income apart from what her mother sends her. She is studying business at university in Abidjan, and as she cannot come to Ireland through family reunification procedures, she is thinking of finishing her studies in order to try and get a job in Ireland – “to find a way of getting there by my own means, closer to my mother, to see my sister.” Meanwhile, Marie Claire says that as a recognized refugee, it is stated on her travel document that she must not visit the Ivory Coast. Lack of family reunification “touches everything” in a person’s life, she says, citing emotional, physical and financial consequences. She said the separation has caused her a great deal of upset.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) lists the lack of provision of a right to family reunification as one of its key concerns with the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2008. In its analysis document of the bill, it is stated: “There is a lack of clarity regarding which family members may be admitted to the State, the conditions under which family reunification may be granted and the length of time it takes to process applications. The wide discretion of the minister with regard to granting of family reunification has led to inconsistencies and a lack of transparency of the decision making process.”

The document pointed out that Ireland is the only EU member state that does not have national rules regarding family reunification in primary legislation. The issue has also been highlighted by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland. According to its director Siobhán  O’Donoghue: “Keeping families separated benefits no-one. What is gained by keeping a man from Bangladesh who has been living and working in Ireland for the past four years separated from his wife and daughter, whom he has only seen in pictures? “By not providing a clear right to family reunion, we are creating division, isolation and unnecessary suffering. If we are serious about integration then we need to start by welcoming families and removing the barriers to family reunion.” 

A joint statement released by a number of immigrant support groups in the wake of the bill’s publication also spotlighted anomalies in relation to family reunification. “According to the European Commission, family reunification is one of the most significant types of migration to the EU. Unless the bill is amended, Ireland will be the only EU member state which does not have primary legislation covering this very significant type of migration,” said the statement from Integrating Ireland, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, the Irish Refugee Council, Refugee Information Service and Migrant Rights Centre Ireland. According to the Department of Justice, suggested amendments will be fully considered. At press time, the bill was at committee stage.