Asylum seekers may be granted right to work in Ireland after 9 months

Asylum seekers in Ireland could be granted the right to work after 9 months according to recommandations of a working group on ways to improving the asylum system in Ireland. The recommendations of the working group report could have a far-reaching impact on the lives of more than 4,000 people in the direct provision system and a further 4,000 asylum seekers living in the wider community. At present, Ireland is one of just two EU member states with a blanket working ban on all asylum seekers.The report is expected to propose that new asylum seekers should have the right to work after nine months of seeking refugee status.

UNHCR released comments on the Reception Conditions Directive (recast)

Asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their application in the European Union must be provided with certain necessities that guarantee them a dignified standard of living according to the EU Reception Conditions Directive that set minimum standards that Member States should respect.

In the past (and present), diverging practices among Member States however led to an inadequate level of material reception conditions for asylum seekers. The Reception Conditions Directive establishes for this reason- and in order to create a level playing field within the EU- common standards of conditions of living of asylum applicants. The previous version of the Directive is still valid until 21 July 2015 when a new one (recast) becomes applicable. It ensures (in legal theory at least) that applicants should have access to housing, food, health care and employment, as well as medical and psychological care.

Article 15 of the Reception Conditions Directive (recast) grants the right to work to asylum seekers but allows for the restriction of this right by EU Member States (who remain free to adopt more favourable standards nevertheless as the Directive only sets minimum standards). EU Member States must transpose the disposals contained in the Reception Conditions Directive (recast) within their legal order by July 2015.

Article 15 of the Reception Conditions Directive (recast) states that: 

UNHCR Diagnostic Tool for Alternatives to Camps 2015 Global Results

In its' Diagnostic Tool for Alternatives to Camps 2015 Global Results UNHCR has established a diagnostic of the situation of refugees in 92 of its' operations (with 121 Population Planning Groups, totaling some 11 million refugees).

The policy requires UNHCR to seek to promote an enabling protection environment where the legal, policy and administrative framework of the host country provides refugees with freedom of movement and residence, permission to work and access to basic services and social “safety nets” as members of the communities where they are living.

In 87% of its' operations, UNHCR has been able to conduct an analysis on socio-economic barriers experienced by refugees in their host country. Among the panel that has been analyzed, refugees are allowed to work in 83% of the situations (in practice in 63% of the situation and in law and policy 20%) and denied the right to work in 17% of the situations.

Food sharing as an opportunity to create jobs for refugees

Food sharing as an opportunity to create jobs for refugees ! We would like to share a tasty and warm article by Mat Petronzio, 'This restaurant is run only by migrants and refugee women'. This initiative supports refugees' employment opportunities in a concrete and inventive manner, adaptable in other parts of the world. 

Mazí Mas is a London-based pop-up restaurant collectively run by women from migrant and refugee communities. These women, all mothers, have had difficulty finding work in the UK due to what some deem a lack of qualifications; nonetheless, they've developed extraordinary culinary skills from years of caring for their families. Kopcke wants to help bridge that gap.

"The idea is to bring to the public something I feel we don't get enough of, which is this amazing cooking you get in homes, but don't usually get a chance to try unless you're invited to someone's home for dinner," Kopcke, who acts as Mazí Mas' CEO, tells Mashable. "And at the same time, it's to create much-needed jobs for women who have no opportunities whatsoever."

German report on the integration of asylum seekers and refugees in the labour market

The Bertelsmann Foundation released a report studying integration of asylum seekers and refugees in the job market in Germany, where asylum seekers are now allowed to work after three months, enhancing their integration prospects. But long asylum procedures still constitute an obstacle to finding job on the labour market, as employers are afraid to employ them without a definitive answer on their refugee status stated the report. Examination of the refugee status in Germany takes in average 7.1 months. 

But waiting time varies depending on nationality: Eritreans with a very high recognition rate nevertheless have to wait for 10.1 months, Afghans 16.5 months and Pakistanis 17.6 months. The report quotes statistics saying that 84% of the German people (surveyed) were in favour of a more rapid integration of asylum seekers in the job market. Reducing (without lowering the quality of the decision making process) the length of refugee status determination status is therefore a major political step to promote refugees integration in the labour market and lower State's dependency of asylum seekers during refugee status determination process.

Worrying plight of IDPs in Irak

We would like to reproduce the recent IRIN article UN Watchdog blasts Iraq over IDP treatment relating increasing difficulties of internally displaced persons and minorities in Irak to move inside Irak to flee the 'so called' Islamist State and find work in the rest of the country due to discrimination or threats by militias. 

DUBAI, 19 May 2015 (IRIN) - A UN watchdog has blasted the Iraqi authorities for their failure to adequately support and protect the nearly three million people displaced within its borders by the so-called Islamic State, citing examples of restricted movement, detention without due process and an "ad hoc" approach to aid delivery.