Last week’s podcast got quite some interest, which is encouraging, I decided to carry on and get more asylum seekers to react to the new Right To Work rule, which has many restrictions and makes it virtually impossible for asylum seekers to find employment, and which helps exploitation to flourish and carry on. This week I traveled to a different c…

Ireland has recently signed up to the EU directive on the asylum process. We are looking at asylum seekers being granted the right to work. In November 2017 the asylum seekers across Ireland got quite excited when they learned about the goverment’s plan to grant those who were not yet refused refugee status, and were still waiting for a decision af…

Today we celebrate the International Day of the African Child. it was initiated by the AOU in 1991 in commemoration of the Soweto Uprising in 1976 in which many children were killed during a protest for better education in their own languages . Looking at the children in African countries, we can see that there are still many challenges ahead. A lo…

Ibrahim is a Syrian refugee, he escaped his country in 2012, and has now been living in Ireland for 5 months. Ibrahim is preparing for a one act play in ‘No Borders’, a series of plays, poetry and musical acts in support of Island to Island, a charity run by Carmel Nic Airt, on Lesbos, in Greece. Ibrahim was 14 and had a good life in Syria, when su…

Tinyiko Chauke started writing a blog, African Stories. I invited him to the studio to talk about this. I have known Tinyiko for a while now and I know he is a passionate follower of all things politics and a proud African. I also know that since his arrival here in Ireland 2 years ago, Tinyiko has adopted a few European traits, like drinking cappu…

Christian is from Congo-Brazaville,he has been asylum seeker in Ireland since 2012. Lucky is a South African, he was living in direct provision for the last 4 years and has now been moved to Dublin. I interviewed them during me The New Rebels show on Irish Radio International, with Irish elections in mind and also the World social work day. It ende…

I first interviewed Taoufik in 2013 for Irish Radio International on the market in Bishopstown. Since then, Taoufik had a remarkable journey to success. Taoufik is a Tunesian father of three who has been living in Ireland for the past 19 years. Since he came to Ireland, Taoufik worked for several different companies, but he had a dream. A dream for…

Pamela moved to Ireland with her husband in 2009. She has 3 sons, who are all grown up and stay in the USA. The couple lives in the beautiful Union Hall in West-Cork, far away from cities and therefore also far away from the rat race. Union hall is surprisingly cosmopolitan. Most of pmaela’s local friends are blow-ins from Spain, France, Germany, P…

Tinyiko arrived in Ireland a year ago from South Africa. When Tinyiko arrived here it wasn’t easy for him. The cold weather came as a shock, he didn’t know anyone, he was homesick and became very ill as well. A lot has changed since then, and his perceptions have changed as well. First if all Tinyiko says that West-Cork, where he’s living now is on…

Phindile is a young South African woman who arrived in Ireland in 2014. She is an asylum seeker. Phindile has a little son, aged nearly 2 who is the son of a non-South African man. He was rejected by her family because his father is not a South African native. Phindile feared xenophobia and decided it would be safer for her son to leave South Afric…