Thousands of undocumented migrants in Ireland can soon regularise their legal status under the “once in a generation” amnesty scheme to be introduced in Cabinet next month.
A portal will be opened in November for the over 17,000 eligible undocumented migrants living in Ireland to apply for legal status. It will remain open for six months. The scheme will give migrants unrestricted access to the labour market, and allow them to apply for citizenship later.
A report by Independent quoted junior minister with responsibility for law reform, James Browne, who said the move could “potentially affect any Afghan nationals already living here who are undocumented.”
As per figures, over 17,000 undocumented migrants live in Ireland, a major chunk being women exploited in the sex industry. Undocumented migrants living in Ireland for at least four years, or three years in the case of those with children, will benefit from the scheme.
“This is a once-in-a-generation scheme to regularise the undocumented. We always ask the Americans to do it for the Irish. To have credibility, we need to be doing the same,” Browne told the Sunday Independent.
“These migrants are people who are already here, and have been for several years, but at the moment they are working in the black economy. A lot are working in kitchens and in some healthcare settings,” he added.
According to Browne, the amnesty could help undocumented women working in prostitution escape from criminal elements that have potentially forced them into the sex industry.
“There are people who are trapped and undocumented in this country. Women are particularly vulnerable out there on the black market. They are at risk and there’s no doubt they are being exploited by criminal elements because of their undocumented status,” he added.
A majority of undocumented migrants are those who arrived on visas for a certain amount of time, but opted to stay. The remaining are those who never had permission to work here but found jobs in the black economy.
As per reports, the majority of undocumented migrants in Ireland are from the Philippines, Mongolia, China, Bangladesh, Brazil, and Malawi.
Figures show that over 75 percent of them have been in Ireland for more than five years and 2,000 of this number are children. Over 93 percent are working and 70 percent are aged between 24 and 44.
Browne had held discussions with refugee and immigration organisations last month to brief them about the plan. According to authorities, they wanted the scheme to be as “straightforward and simple for applicants as possible.”
“The State did not want a situation where undocumented migrants had to access complex legal advice in order to find out if they were eligible for the scheme,” Browne told Irish Times last month.