Our Cork 2040: “The direct provision system will be history."
Deborah Oniah hopes Ireland's direct provision system will be scrapped by 2040, but in the meantime, she says, it's in need of immediate reform.
Welcome to part two of Our Cork 2040.
Cork city is set to double in size by 2040 under the government’s Project Ireland 2040 plans, with huge impacts not only on city-dwellers but on the whole county.
With these ambitious plans comes lots of talk of “stakeholders.” This often seems to mean private developers, multinational employers and politicians. But who really holds a stake in the future of Cork? We believe it’s the people who live, work, raise families and face all of life’s challenges here.
What kind of Cork do YOU want to live in?
In the coming weeks, JJ and Ellie will act as editors for a variety of writers with different areas of expertise, experience and interest. These opinion pieces will remain free to read and won’t be subscriber-only because we want to spark conversation.
Our Cork 2040 is an opinion-based series. Tripe+Drisheen doesn’t necessarily share these opinions, but we do feel they should be heard. If you would like to become a contributing writer in this series, drop us a line! Our contact details are here. If you like what you read and want to support quality, independent local journalism, subscribe below.
Our Cork 2040: Deborah Oniah
Deborah Oniah is a mum of four who has been through the Irish direct provision system and now lives in Mallow. She has a law degree from her home country of Nigeria. She’s a graduate PGDip in trauma studies under UCC’s sanctuary scholarship, a member of the Sanctuary runners, Saoirse women’s group at Cork Migrant Centre in Nano Nagle Place, and the advocacy group for Cork City of Sanctuary Movement.
What’s the future of the direct provision system?
I now live in a country where the government listens and wants to change things for the better.
You may not agree with me, but from where I come from, Nigeria, this is not the case. Trust me, in Ireland the government listens; it may be slow, but some things get done.
I am a migrant and there is a system to help migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and for that I am sincerely grateful. I spent four years in this system, so what I want see for Cork by 2040 is that the direct provision system will be history. What should replace it is resettlement and proper support for migrants.
There are plans to end direct provision by 2024. I know the intention to end direct provision is good on paper, but the reality is in Ireland that there are many challenges to reaching this point, including the housing crisis. In the meantime, migrants are still living in direct provision, and the system needs to be improved in lots of basic ways.
My own experience of direct provision
My life has been a journey. I am from Nigeria. My daughter, my fourth baby, was born here. I have suffered many losses as a child: separation from parents, loss of my mum. Eventually my dad re-married and life was almost normal again, but my loss was never addressed. We never talked about it but my body did. I had loss of breath, tightness in my throat, voices in my head telling me I was going to die during this episode. My body kept my pain, so I carried all these layers of trauma.
I became a mother and the system in my country was hard: the government, work, being a woman. I had a family member that was shot in front of his house. My mum had died in an accident because of the bad roads. Nothing was working and the weight of that life was too much. Life was hard for me as child and I thought I could give my children a choice to live a better life and so I left.
I have lived in a total of four direct provision centres including Kinsale Road and Mallow. I started off in Sligo and that was difficult. It got better in the third and fourth places, and from Mallow I got my residency.
Now, I have just completed a PGDip in trauma studies in UCC. I also facilitate intercultural dialogue and parenting workshops through the Cork Migrant Centre in Nano Nagle Place. They have been a positive change and support to hundreds of women and children in Cork direct provision.
Basic reforms: a points system for food
The way direct provision is now, people can’t make their own food. This is an additional stress, not being able to make the kind of food you like to eat, or a mother not being able to make her children favourite food can be disempowering for the family.
A points system should be introduced in all centres, where families can be able to make their own food. Centres in Sligo, Millstreet, Macroom and Mallow now run this points system: it allows families to get their preferred groceries and make their own food.
Isolation
Most direct provision centres are in isolated areas and it is hard to integrate, giving people a sense of rejection. Integration can reduce isolation. I want to see a Cork where mother and toddler groups within the community recognise there are lonely and isolated women in direct provision that need someone to talk to. Travel and childcare are big issues for women with children in direct provision. They don’t have means to travel, so the people in the community may need to do the reaching out.
I 100% believe that integration will reduce isolation and give people a sense of, “I am here. I may not belong yet, because belonging is a journey, but I am here and I am accepted.”
Childcare courses for parents
I want to see Tusla offer training to parents from the very beginning and not wait for the worst to happen, so parents are properly informed about the new country and the law as it relates to children, instead of being threatened that the children will be taken away. It was my second day in Ireland when I was told that.
We come from different cultures and many things are new to us. Knowledge is power, so give parents that power. Every parent is doing the best they can and when it comes to the child the parents will do everything they can.
Trauma and mental health
“Go back to your country,” some say, “you get free stuff, who are you to complain?” When you come to a new country with many losses and layers of trauma, all you want to do is stay silent. And to stay grateful for the fact that the reason for survival that made you leave your home country in the first place is achieved.
Many times that does not take the pain away: the pain of family members that are dead. For many, the pain of being raped or being in an abusive relationship, the pain of war in a home country, or the pain of a mother watching female genital mutilation on her first child and had to plead to protect the second and third, or the pain of watching your child being physically abused. Many carry scars, that are not seen but cut deep and everything is a trigger.
Mental health needs to become a priority as much as food and housing. There are many agencies for mental health and women and it’s been the same faces and groups that work with migrants and people in direct provision. Sometimes it seems more like words than actually doing. I want to see true collaboration, where the services work together and actually go into direct provision centres to offer support.
Fears to speak out
Everyone I know in direct provision has fears for their survival from their home country, and a different fear of the Department of Justice.
For the period of waiting, it is the deep fear of “what if,” the fear to speak out not knowing what that will do to your family. “Keep your head down.” I say that because in that period the fate of you and your children lies in the hands of whoever is looking at your case. You are neither here nor there and that state of uncertainty is a big weight. You relive your story in interviews with a stranger that is looking at you like they don’t believe you.
Many things are not said because of shame and fear or because most times it does not make sense to who you are talking to. How do you explain the fear, how do you just say I want my children to be safe and have options in life, is that enough? In the fear you stay grateful too: I am still here and it could mean something, so for me I choose, hope over and over again, because truly I am still here.
Life brought us here
Life brought us here. Survival brought us here. I am not political but I like to see migrants being treated as the human beings that they are. A child treated as a child, women treated as women, men treated as men, and families treated as families, where people are not identified by numbers, their pain or their colour.
Powerful article