Direct Provision Definition

What is Direct Provision? Defined by The Irish Immigrant Support Centre, Direct Provision is a system intended to provide for the welfare of asylum seekers and their families as they await decisions on their asylum application. An asylum seeker is a person who has left their home country as a political refugee and is seeking asylum in another.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for healthy and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care. Under Direct Provision, Asylum seekers receive accommodation on a full-board basis. Full board accommodation means they receive breakfast, lunch and evening meals. The cost of all

Privacy is something which is in short supply in the Direction Provision centres across Ireland. Members of the Oireachtas committee set up to look at Direct Provision described current living conditions as “cramped and intolerable, with little private space for parents with

Facilities such as bathrooms are often shared. The Oireachtas reported, “a majority of families living in the system have sole access to their own bathroom and toilet facilities.” It is very obvious there is no sense of privacy in Direct Provision centres and I believe this is both preposterous and abominable.

Children account for one-third of those seeking refugee in Ireland. The unsettling truth is that some children have spent their entire childhood living in Direct Provision. A child has a right to play and to have fun. Asylum seekers living in Direct Provision are governed by unnecessarily restrictive rules and this makes it increasingly difficult as a child to experience the full potential of childhood. I believe that growing up in such an environment is bound to have a negative effect on a child's mental health.

Those unnecessarily restrictive rules affect every aspect of the lives of asylum seekers. There is no sense of independence in Direct Provision centres. Asylum seekers cannot even prepare their own meals. Direct Provision infantilizes adults. When the Irish Immigrant Support Center interviewed asylum seekers they stated that “the food system is unsuitable for babies, toddlers and children.” They declared that “the food is often ‘inedible’ and also that it is regularly high in salt, sugar and in fat.” In regards to health and nutrition, this information is startling and should raise a red