Banana Republic: 4,820 rejected refugees have been given "Leave to Remain" in Ireland & Government still funding their accommodation. 8 million euro fund to prioritize their accommodation in 2023.

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In 2023 a phrase is going to become popular in Ireland. So, I thought, maybe, even as the lights dim on 2022, that it still might be a good idea to get a little ahead of the posse and become familiar with this expression and what it means. Especially, considering some of the information that has come to light around it over the last two weeks through a government initiated tender process.

Leave to Remain

The above wording is a status that many refugee seekers in Ireland are granted when the International Protection Office ( IPO ) rejects their asylum application. Yes, eventhough, an applicant is not considered a genuine refugee case the government has decided, in their infinite wisdom, to allow them to stay and work in Ireland or draw social welfare. Indefinitely. We currently have 4,820 people with this status in accommodation in Ireland and the number has been increasing like yet another fast rising migration tide in 2022. This loophole is being abused to the max this year.

IPO website definition

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Now, bear in mind, this Leave to Remain figure above contains only the total number with this status in state provided IPAS ( International Protection Accommodation Services ) accommodation. The overall numbers with this status in the country is likely much higher but for the purpose of this piece we will focus only on the people we are currently funding in accommodation as we have those specific details available.

This Leave to Remain cohort, as we shall soon see, are likely to become a very controversial group in 2023 based on how the government is planning to treat them in the immediate future. Now, at this point, I should note that all of the information in this article is taken from a government Request for Tender document published on Irish public procurement websites e-tenders on December 15th 2022.

Document Entitled:

Housing Support Services to Persons with Status living in IPAS accommodation to transition into housing in the community.

As it stands, if the IPO recommends that an application should not be granted for either refugee or subsidiary protection status, the Minister must then decide if that person should be granted permission to remain here. Currently, the Department of Justice are granting Leave to Remain status to over 300 people a month. To repeat - these are people not considered genuine asylum seekers/ refugees by our own government on the initial adjudication. It begs a couple of very pertinent questions:

Why are these people not returned to their country of origin?

On what basis are they being granted Leave to Remain here?

Specifically, in our current situation, where we are already struggling to accommodate close to 70,000 Ukrainians in one calendar year. It makes no logical sense to be allowing non-refugees to remain here surely. Below is a monthly breakdown of those with Leave to Remain in Ireland in 2022 and who are still in IPAS accommodation.

Based on IPAS’s own rules once people are granted Leave to Remain status they should no longer be in state provided asylum accommodation and this is even specified in the agency’s own tender document, the relevant section of which I am going to copy below from the tender literature. Another point to note is that according to IPAS people with Leave to Remain status in Ireland have the exact same housing rights as Irish nationals. Go figure.

Part A: Introduction and Context

The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), currently provides accommodation services to international protection applicants while their applications are being processed.

The provision of these services should end if the Department of Justice grants an applicant a refugee status, a status of subsidiary protection or a permission to remain in Ireland.

However, applicants who have received status (‘Person(s) with Status’) often remain in IPAS accommodation on a temporary basis while they look for their own place to live. Persons with Status have the same housing entitlements as Irish nationals. However, they can experience barriers in accessing housing as they have not have knowledge of available accommodation in the areas where they wish to live; they may not have sufficient English language competency to complete applications for Housing Assistance Payment or may not have transport to get to viewings of available accommodation. This tender seeks parties to assist Person(s) with Status to find their own housing solutions outside of IPAS accommodation so that they may live independently in the community. This will include finding suitable accommodation, supporting Person(s) with Status to complete applications for Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and supporting them to move into this accommodation.

So, as we can see, not alone are this “ Leave to Remain “ segment growing exponentially in 2022, in most cases, they remain in Direct Provision accommodation or equivalent provided by IPAS. At the moment, the Irish taxpayer is paying for their accommodation and meals. Not surprisingly, this has caused a problem for the government this year due to the massive influx of all types of refugees into the country and I guess this tender process is part of the government solution to free up some space in our asylum infrastructure and move some of these people on. Unfortunately for IPAS the data within the tender documents is highly revealing and indicates that we seem to be rubber-stamping anyone that enters Ireland with this Leave to Remain status. Which in effect is giving all these rejected refugees work visa status and more.

Once again, through lacking of planning, the government have created a massive, self inflicted problem and are now belatedly trying to fix it through this innocuously titled tender process and proposed solution which we shall get into in a few minutes. However, the solution as you might have guessed creates an even bigger problem in my opinion. Surprise, Surprise eh…

Essentially, people with this new status are treated as economic migrants except with better access to our social welfare and housing system than say someone arriving here fresh from an EU 27 country. I outlined above 4,820 of these people are still in asylum accommodation and the taxpayer is funding three meals a day and accommodation to people who are either in full receipt of a salary from a job or are in possession of the full benefits of the Irish social welfare system and who will even have access to HAP if or when they can find HAP accommodation. HAP is the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and is a social housing support for people who have a long-term housing need. HAP is available in all local authority areas.

Indeed, this full suite of measures is not a luxury afforded to our own homeless never mind our own unemployed.

The statistics above indicate that the number of Leave to Remainers in our asylum system has more than doubled in 2022 and have increased by almost 3,000, from 1,970 at the beginning of the year to the aforementioned 4,820 at the end of November 2022. Here is the full county-by-county breakdown of the numbers.

Link to full tender document here

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Now, let’s look at this fiasco another way. Ireland has managed to find the space to feed and house 3,000 extra people in 2022 that the Irish State has rejected as refugees but has told they can stay indefinitely in Ireland. Currently, many have free accommodation and three meals a day with full access to our jobs market or social welfare system. Yet, simultaneously, somehow, in the same year we have not managed to find a way to reduce the number of Irish homeless by 3,000. We have not found a way to house 3,000 of our most vulnerable citizens and give them three square meals a day.

Now, possibly, this isn’t even the most scandalous news I am going to impart to you in this article.

Guess what our government are now doing?

The Irish government are spending 8 million euro to pay private operators, charities & NGO types to assist Leave to Remain migrants with finding private accommodation in communities all around Ireland. Think of the immediate future problem this arrangement is going to cause. Young Irish people are now in competition with persons with “Leave to Remain “ status for private accommodation except that the state is paying private operators and charities to help not your son and daughter to find a place to rent but prioritize rejected and illegitimate refugees. In trying to get these people out of the asylum system quickly they are putting them in direct competition with Irish people for housing and making it harder for Irish people to find a place to rent as suddenly an extra 5,000 people are now turfed into the private rental and social housing sector. With no doubt thousands more to follow next year.

Is it any wonder “refugees” are queuing up to come here this year when many are granted Leave to Stay on rejection of their asylum application?

So, at this point you might be wondering what this new “ government assistance” entails exactly. Well, why don’t we get the information from the horses mouth.

The successful Tenderer must provide assistance to Persons with Status, (if the Person would like assistance) to, at a minimum:

• Build a good working relationship with the Person(s) with Status;

• Carry out a housing assessment to identify needs and requirements of household;

• Register the Person(s) with Status for social housing support with a Local Authority, and ensure eligibility for Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) where appropriate;

• Identify suitable accommodation for the Persons with Status to whom they are providing assistance;

• Setting up, attending and following up with home viewings. This may involve assistance with contacting landlords or estate agents, assistance with navigating public transport to the viewing or provision of transport;

• Setting up the tenancy or agreement;

• Provision of practical assistance with the setting up of a tenancy – for example, tenancy agreements and bills

The Contracting Authority requires that the successful Tenderer have ancillary services in place which at a minimum, must include:

I. Accommodation Finding Service: A system of establishing networks with landlords, estate agents and other housing provision options to source accommodation must be provided and maintained, as part of the service;

II. Interpretation: Person(s) with Status must have access to interpretation services, if required, at all stages of housing support service provision. Where required, consideration should also be given to facilitating residents with literacy issues or disabilities which might inhibit interaction with this service

The mind boggles it’s akin to having your own personal housing assistant in the language of your choice. It is quite clear that the government are setting up huge funding and a system to ease rejected refugees into our labour markets, our sparse accommodations, our cities, towns and villages. At a distinct advantage particularly over working class and young people. It sure doesn’t sound like a system or solution that plans on returning many people to their country of origin, and again let’s remind ourselves once more, that these are people whose refugee applications the system has rejected.

Just how many people are the Irish government planning to grant with a status of Leave to Remain in 2023?

And why are they being allowed to remain?

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