Immigration permissions automatically extended until January 2021
Last week the Department of Justice announced an automatic extension for anyone whose immigration permissions expire between 20 September and 20 January 2021.
This will come as a huge relief to the tens of thousands of migrants who have been living in limbo the last few months with expired permissions who have been unable to renew or secure an appointment to register.
(This new extension applies also to anyone whose permissions expired between March and September and haven't been able to renew yet or register for the first time.)
While this extension is good news, it’s just not good enough.
Our Immigration Helpline continues to receive calls from concerned people who are living in limbo because they don’t have an Irish Residency Permit (IRP) card. These cards are required by many Government bodies in order to apply for crucial services including transportation, social welfare, medical cards, and more.
We’re also hearing from migrants who have been offered jobs but with the backlog in first-time registrations to obtain their IRP cards, are at the risk of losing those job offers.
The Immigrant Council is continuing to raise this issue with the Government together with Nasc Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre, Crosscare Migrant Project, Doras, the Irish Refugee Council, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, and a dozen more organisations working to defend migrant rights across the country.
We are pushing for a dialogue with the Department of Justice to reduce the backlog of tens of thousands of applications and ensure proper resourcing of the Immigration Service Delivery division.
