I have been with Doras Luimni since 2005. Over the years I have seen great changes. The doors which were opened initially to welcome Asylum Seekers and Refugees are now opening wider to embrace all new-comers to Ireland.  This means that we have to constantly expand the boundaries of our service.  On any given day one could interact with people from all five continents and try to respond to a range of different preoccupations and concerns such as; work permits, citizenship, visitor’s visa, family reunification, social welfare payments, education, housing, tribunal hearings, language, the list is endless.  However, due to the fact that there are four hostels for Asylum Seekers in the Limerick area our attention also focuses very much on them.

Participants in a course in Doras Luimní 

Can you believe that some of the women that were in hostel accommodation when I began in Doras in August 2005 are still in the same Hostel and are still awaiting a decision on their case from the Department of Justice.  This means that during all that time the women cannot work, cannot continue education, are living in an Institution, are receiving a weekly allowance of €19.10 and those with children a weekly extra of €9.00.  We often say it must be soul destroying and extremely frustrating.

Indeed the life of an asylum seeker is a ‘waiting game’.  It is a life of waiting and hoping.  No one knows how much ’waiting’ they have done before they arrived in Ireland. When they arrive they wait for Immigration to file them, number them, accommodate them for some days in Dublin, and finally give them a destination in one of the many accommodation centers in Ireland.  These centers, which are hostels, become the ’home’ of Asylum Seekers where they continue to ‘wait’.  They wait for a letter, wait for an interview, wait for a result, wait to appeal, wait for another letter, another interview…….  It goes on and on.  For some the waiting is longer than for others.  It can be anything from a year up to five, or six years.

For some the result was worth waiting for and they are on their way after a long ‘coming’. For others deportation is the outcome.  I wonder how the ‘deportees’ feel?   How has the aborted waiting impacted on them?  Have they become complacent, angry, depressed, more adventurous, less adventurous, fearful, aggressive?  What values did they have when they came to Ireland, what values do they have as they leave Ireland, what values did they adopt in Ireland?

Doras Luimní has moved on, it has pushed its boundaries as dictated by the changing reality of the newcomers we welcome daily and weekly.  We have been focusing on advocacy, capacity building, and organisation of events that help towards integration.  However we are ever conscious of the many whose lives are at a standstill, the people for whom a letter from the Department of Justice will determine their future, that letter that will make all the difference.

See www.dorasluimni.org for more information

Ella Noonan rsm
South Central Province