There has been much uproar on social media after it emerged that migrants who arrive in Ireland with no passports or other such documents can open an Irish bank account, while Irish citizens practically have to jump through loops to do the same.
Many say that it’s yet another flaw the government turn a blind eye to.
Unvetted Asylum seekers arriving into Ireland with no passports or other identification papers can now open Irish bank accounts with Bank of Ireland
Last, month, the Green Party announced €100’s of millions of tax payer funds will be used to house and provides food, healthcare, education and money to asylum seekers who arrive into Ireland.
Asylum seekers are different to refugees. Refugees enter Ireland after government vetting and their arrival is planned with agencies such as the UN.
Asylum seekers arrive into Ireland unannounced at out ports and “claim asylum”. According to the latest official asylum statistics at www.asylumineurope.org Countries like Hungary reject about 91.5% of asylum seekers whilst Ireland rejects only 47.99% of asylum applications (down from 70%). In recent months the Irish statistics have included Refugees with Asylum seekers and this has been causing some confusion.
It is common practice for asylum seekers to deliberately destroy their identity papers either on the plane or in the airport toilets to conceal their identity on entering Ireland, making it difficult to carry out proper security vetting and deportations.
Setting up bank accounts without a passport or identification has been difficult for these asylum seekers without any form of identification when arriving into Ireland and given they will now receive money equivalent to the unemployment payment, a bank account for payment will be necessary moving forward.
According to RTE, The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has been campaigning for bank accounts for asylum seekers without identification and now Bank of Ireland have agreed to set up bank accounts without identification. Instead, the Bank of Ireland will accept an in date Temporary Residence Certificate (in the case of asylum seekers) issued by the Irish government.
Sinéad Gibney, Chief Commissioner of the IHREC, has called on all banks to allow asylum seekers to open a bank account.
She said: “We welcome this positive step from Bank of Ireland, who has confirmed to us that they accept asylum seekers’ and refugees’ State-issued documents to open an account”.
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