ASYLUM SEEKERS FROM a list of 20 countries will no longer be able to travel to Ireland without a visa following a decision by government to suspend an international agreement.
The move was signed off by Cabinet last night.
The plan saw Council of Europe Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees suspended for a year from midday today.
What’s in the agreement that’s been suspended?
The Council of Europe Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees was signed and entered into force by Ireland in 1969.
Under that agreement, refugees who have been granted international protection in a signatory country can travel to another signatory country – so-called ‘safe’ countries – for a period of up to three months without a visa.
Signatories of the agreement issue what’s known as a Convention Travel Document to refugees under this agreement and this facilitates the visa-free travel.
The countries that have ratified and brought the agreement into force are:
The Council of Europe is an international organisation, separate to the EU. The EU also has its own legislation on asylum seekers, which prohibits refugees from applying for asylum in more than one member state.
Why has it been suspended?
The Government agreed to the changes following proposals by Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.
Minister McEntee said that the agreement was being suspended due to concerns over abuse of the system.
“However, where there is evidence that there may be abuse of such systems, the Government must act swiftly to mitigate the risks to maintain the integrity of our immigration and international protection systems and uphold public confidence in those systems.
Because refugees have to physically enter a country’s territory to apply for asylum, they could, theoretically, seek asylum in one EU member state, then go to another through their right to travel to designated “safe” countries.
McEntee said:
In recent months, we have seen that the visa exemption provided for in the Council of Europe Agreement is being exploited, including by some who enter the State and subsequently claim international protection, despite having already been granted such protection by another European state.
Figures from the International Protection Office (IPO) say that the Eurodac database – which stores fingerprints of international protection applicants or people who crossed a border illegally – showed that 760 people were notified of claiming international protection in Ireland despite having it granted in another country.
Of those, 479 people came from EU member states from which people granted international protection benefit from a visa exemption.
Christian Kaunert, a professor of international security at DCU, explained to The Journal that processing these duplicate applications is a bureaucratic headache for member states.
“The government has to send them back to those countries, that costs them money, customer a lot of bureaucratic hassle.”
Will this affect Ukrainian refugees?
No, the government has said the changes will not impact on Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the Russian invasion.
Minister Coveney said the decision will assist in the protection of Ukrainian refugees – and those of other nationalities who are fleeing conflict – because it will “lessen the incidence of abuse of this system”.
Has this been done by other countries?
Minister Coveney said the decision was “not unprecedented” and that other Council of Europe member states had taken similar action previously.
Two other countries have suspended the agreement. Both France (in 1986) and the UK (in 2003) suspended operation of the agreement for similar reasons.
Because the Council of Europe is an international organisation, the agreement is bound under international law and is not as rigidly enforceable directly in member jurisdictions as EU law is.
DCU’s Professor Kaunert said this means individual governments can decide not to apply it temporarily if they wish.
“It’s only applicable insofar as the government and the legislator provides for it being applicable,” he explained. “So that then means that when they provide for it not being applicable, they can suspend it.
“There’s an understanding that it might be implemented in different ways in different countries.”
Does this suspension have anything to do with the UK’s Rwanda policy?
The UK has not yet deported any asylum seekers to Rwanda due to a last-minute interim ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.
The controversial policy was brought in to act as a deterrent for immigrants coming to the UK.
There is no hard evidence showing that the Rwanda policy has led to an increase in asylum applications in Ireland, but Kaunert said it’s a likely contributing factor.
“It’s become far more complicated to get into UK and more people are potentially afraid that if they’re entering [and] applying for asylum there, that they could be sent back to Rwanda.”
Brian Collins, Advocacy Service Manager at the migrant and refugee rights organisation Nasc, echoed Kaunert’s comments about the lack of solid data on any influence the UK policy has had on the number of people coming to Ireland to seek asylum.
“As far as I understand the increase in people coming here started happening before any mention of the Rwanda deal. It’s possible it had some impact but it’s really difficult to say in reality whether it has or not without the data,” he said.
How has this change been received?
Collins explained that there may be valid reasons for those who have been granted international protection in another country to want to move to Ireland, including limitations on certain human rights in those member states.
“Our position would be that there needs to be individualised assessment for each person and the reasons why they’re leaving other countries,” he said.
“So for example if someone shows up here with refugee status, say from Hungary, the Irish authorities would have to determine whether it’s safe to come back. In some countries, even in the EU, certain rights are not always respected and it can be a hostile environment.”
The decision will also mean those who have spent years going through the application process for international protection in other member states will continue to be separated from family members here because they now cannot travel to visit them.
“Obviously, if you’re granted refugee status it means your case has been found to be credible in that country and that you were, for example, a survivor or torture or that there’s a well-founded fear of persecution,” he said.
“That would have to be accepted by the authorities in that country for a person to be given refugee status. The process can be quite lengthy and that means people may have been separated fro their families and friends for a long time.
Remember on top of that we also had Covid restrictions over the last couple of years. One of the things we’re concerned about is the abrupt nature of the decision. People might have planned to travel and found out last night that this was coming into place today so they won’t have had time to make other arrangements. Somebody who is a refugee may be more likely to be economically disadvantaged so losing money on booked tickets is an issue.
“You have to consider the emotional impact of separation from family and friends, the visa exemption was one advantage that someone with refugee status could benefit from.”
The Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), a grassroots organisation, also said in a statement that it was “disturbed” by the suspension of visa-free travel for refugees.
“MASI is concerned that refugees may be stuck in countries that have been found undermining the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Those asylum seekers or refugees who find themselves in such situations should be allowed to seek protection elsewhere.
“Ireland cannot be preaching about human rights in the global arena while shutting its borders to people who seek safety.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say