Africa Centre, an organisation working among the estimated 35,000 African immigrants living in Ireland is calling upon the Minister for Integration to seek for direct representation of migrant voices in the proposed taskforce.
The organisation welcomed the announcement made yesterday by the Minster of State for Integration, Mr. Conor Lenihan, to setup a Taskforce on the Integration of migrant communities into society.
Commenting on the Minister announcement, the Director of Africa Centre, Mr. Dier Tong said today that: “migrant community organisations, by the nature of their engagement with migrants at the grass root level and their contact with statutory and non-statutory bodies, are well placed to bring about maximum impact to the work of the proposed task force on integration”. Mr. Tong Continued: “Although migrant community organisations have been actively supporting their communities, they have rarely been directly represented at the policy and decision making forums”. “We are hopeful that the minister, with the commitment and understanding he has shown during the short period since he came into office, will recognise the importance of having migrant voices directly represented on the taskforce”, Mr. Tong concluded.
It is to be recalled that the Minister made the comments yesterday announcing the setting up of a task force to look at the challenges facing foreign nationals integrating into society. Mr Lenihan said that up to 12 people would be appointed to the working group which would identify issues facing communities.
He said the committee should be up and running at the beginning of next year and it would issue recommendations within a year
Africa Centre
Tel/Fax: 01-865 6951
Email: dier@africacentre.ie
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