‘This is heartbreaking’: Migrant workers protest over rules on family reunions

When Nurudeen Oyewole spoke to his daughter on her ninth birthday, she told him she wished he was with her so they could go shopping to mark the occasion.

The social worker, originally from Nigeria, came to Ireland in 2019, and has not been with his family since.

“No amount of communication you can have equals having physical bonding with them. It’s very traumatic for some of us,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to choose between providing for my family and being with them.”

Mr Oyewole cannot reunite with his wife and three children in Ireland as he earns less than €30,000 a year. People from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) working on a General Employment Permit, or Stamp Four Visa, must wait 12 months after arriving in Ireland before they can apply to have their families come to join them. A person must be earning more than €30,000 to bring their partner to Ireland, and €40,000 to bring one child, and it increases from there.

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After an application has been made, it can take another year for the form to be processed. If the application is unsuccessful, for reasons including required earnings, people often have to wait to become Irish citizens, which takes seven years, before they can have their families join them.

Mr Oyewole, spokesman for the Families Belong Together campaign group, was among a large group of migrant workers who protested over the Family Reunion Policy in front of the Department of Justice in Dublin on Wednesday, the International Day of Families.

Some of the protesters carried signs stating ‘Minister McEntee, reunite our families’, while others held photographs of their loved ones. “What do we want? Our families here. When do we want it? Now,” the protesters chanted.

Shiji Joseph, a member of the campaign group, is a carer in a nursing home earning €27,000 annually. Originally from India, she arrived in September 2022 and has not seen her husband, son aged 15 or daughter aged nine since. Under the current rules, she faces having to wait until 2029 to secure citizenship before they can come to join her.

“Whenever we are applying for this job, they tell us after one year we can apply, but that’s a fake promise,” she said. “My daughter is always asking, and what can we tell them, there is no answer for us. We also don’t know... This is heartbreaking.”

Ms Joseph said it is tough returning to an empty home at the end of a shift. “I would love nothing more than to see my kids every day, to help them with their homework, to share a meal as a family, all of us together.”

She appealed to Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, “as a mother herself, to remove the barriers separating us from our families”.

Ms McEntee previously announced a review of the Family Reunion Policy. She and Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke on Wednesday confirmed that spouses or partners of General Employment Permit holders who already live with them in Ireland will now be granted the right to work. Previously, this right was only given to spouses and partners of Critical Skills Permit holders.

However, this does not change the reunification process for those who were protesting outside the department. The policy governing such cases remains under review.

Neil Bruton, campaigns manager with Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, said people were asked to come to Ireland to do essential work and were protesting because they are “desperate” for help.

“We believe that everyone coming to work in Ireland deserves to have their family with them,” he said.

“We’re calling on Minister McEntee to scrap the salary assessment, scrap the waiting time, and enable people to have their families with them from the start.”