MIGRANT WORKERS GATHERED outside of Leinster House today to call on Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan to change the current family reunification policy, which many say is keeping them separated from their partners and children. 

Under the current rules workers from non-EU countries need to have an annual salary of at least €30,000 after tax in order to qualify for family reunification, and the amount you need to earn increases if you want to bring multiple children to live with you here. 

These are workers who have general employment permits (support workers, healthcare assistants, meat factory workers) as opposed to migrant nurses and doctors, who have critical skills permits, and don’t have to comply with the same rules. 

Earning €30k annually only enables workers to bring their partner here under family reunification. To bring a child you need to earn €40k after tax, to bring two children requires a salary of over €50k, and it increases further with each child. 

Neil Bruton, the co-director of Migrants Rights Centre Ireland (MCRI), said today at the rally that even for those who meet the financial requirements, there is a two-and-a-half year wait in having their applications processed. 

(These workers can only apply after they’ve been in the country for 12 months, and in many cases there is an 18-month time frame for the process of their applications being considered, he explained). 

“Fundamentally we’re here because we all need our families around us. No one should have to choose between being with their family and providing for their family, but that’s the horrible choice that Irish government policy is making migrant workers face,” Bruton said. 

He added that MRCI is aware of workers who have had to wait for 2,3,4, 5 and even in some cases 7 years (when they qualify for citizenship) to be reunited with their families. 

“This policy is denying essential workers, people who work in nursing homes, in food factories, on mushroom farms, it’s denying them the right to be with their children and their partners simply because of the salary they earn, or the type of job they have, and we believe it is unfair,” he said. 

Angelina Nyoni is a support worker based in County Cavan who made the trip to Leinster House today to protest the current rules. 

She turned 50 this year, and spent her 50th birthday alone, separated from her partner and two sons. 

She said that she applied for family reunification and got a response only this year, and it was a rejection. 

“I’ve put in an appeal and I’ve heard no response since June,” she said.

Angelina is hoping that her husband and her 12-year-old son can come and live with her. 

“My son’s name is Angelton, that’s a unique name I know, he’s my baby. I left him when he was 9, and now he’s turning 12. Three years. The other day he told me ‘You know mummy I’m almost reaching puberty’. Over the phone – heartbreaking,” she said. 

“You don’t know what it means to go home to an empty house. You cry in bed. You cry on your way to work, and then you get to work and you do your best, you get home again, and cry yourself to sleep,” Angelina added. 

She said that she works with children at the moment, and that they sometimes call her mum. 

“That is so hard, when I am away from my own children,” Angelina said.

A review of the current rules around family reunification is due to be published next week. 

MRCI is calling on the Government to remove the 12-month period for applications, to scrap the income thresholds, and to allow full-time workers, regardless of their job category, to be reunited with their families.