Welcome to the September edition of Rundale, which is coming to you, like last month’s, after a wee delay. We are still finding our own rhythms and trying to be kind to ourselves as independent media.
In this issue, we bring you three pieces focused on Ireland’s international protection system, two written from personal experience and one looking at the changes and continuities in the policy context over the last twenty years.
In IPAS Centres: The Rising Emperor, Doyin Titilayo writes about his personal experience of Direct Provision (DP) – a time marked by fear, division, and the misuse of power by DP managers against vulnerable residents. Doyin details how a lack of oversight and care allows these abuses of power to occur in DP and what can be done about it.
A. Mohammed writes about his own experience of trying to pursue postgraduate education whilst in Direct Provision. He describes the obstacles and challenges faced by those seeking to pursue education and contribute to society whilst in Ireland’s asylum system, including the social isolation and enforced mobility which contribute to denying access to learning.
Lastly, Donal O’Kelly, reflects on the development of Ireland’s immigration policy and the treatment of asylum seekers over the last three decades. He looks at the influence of the British immigration system in developing the infamous Direct Provision system in the late 1990s as a deterrence to asylum seekers – an influence which is once again being seen in the current government’s move to increase deportations as an answer to the Far Right. Donal ends by asking how anti-racist organisations should respond to these changes.
We hope that you’ll learn from this month’s pieces. We invite you to take some time to spend with them.
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