Life after Direct Provision... ‘I am just glad to have the life I have here. I’m very happy here’

A NAVAN health care worker who worked on the front-line throughout the pandemic spent eight and a half years in direct provision, receiving just €19.10 a week, wasn't allowed work, was threatened with deportation and found it very difficult to cope with the isolation of direct provision.

Patricia, whose name we have changed because she still fears repercussions from anti-asylum seeker protesters, was fleeing eastern Nigeria, where tensions between the state and those seeking an independent Biafra have risen in the last two decades.

“There was fighting, killings, kidnappings in the area. It wasn't safe, the atmosphere was very tense. I had a small baby and was fearful for the future.”

Patricia decided to leave her home and travelled to Ireland.

“I arrived in 2005 and was told to go to the Department of Justice. I was very frightened and it had been a long journey. I remember the baby crying because she had soiled herself, but they were kind and let me go and look after her.

“We were taken to a hostel in Dublin and stayed there for a few months.

“It was OK, as I had no expectation of anything. I put in an application for asylum and they moved me to Mosney after a few months.”

During this time, she was receiving €19.10 a week.

“It was difficult. We were there for eight years. I wasn't allowed work, I couldn't really do anything, it was bad for my mental health.”

Patricia has great praise for the Irish Refugee Council and Cultur, the Migrants Rights Centre who she described as “angels.”

“They arranged training courses for us, so we felt we were doing something. They helped in every way.”

“The asylum process was very difficult. I didn't know what was going on a lot of the time. I didn't feel safe until I was told I could stay. I couldn't travel. I knew tensions were high at home, where Biafra were looking to secede and there were regular killings and kidnappings.”

As time went on, Patricia's asylum application was rejected and she was issued with a deportation order.

“I was living in fear. We had to report to the Department of Justice every week and there were always those who went there and didn't come back, so I was always afraid going there.”

Patricia later received leave to remain and was able to leave Mosney.

She is now working in health care and making a life for her family.

“I don't like to look back on life in Nigeria or my time in direct provision.

“I am just glad to have the life I have here. I am happy here. In general the Irish are friendly and are good neighbours.”

“I made Irish friends going to the Church of Ireland in Julianstown, when I was in Mosney and I have made Irish friends at work.

“I find Ireland quiet and welcoming, and I feel safe.”

Another former asylum seeker who works in health care is Taluwanimi who came to Ireland more recently - in 2021.

Taluwanimi grew up in an orphanage in Nigeria and back in 2003, when she was 15, fighting broke out in the community where she lived,

“There had been some kidnappings and we all just fled from the area. I survived for several months sleeping under the bridge in Lagos.”

Fifteen year old Taluwanimi found herself molested by an attacker. “I escaped and ran to the church where the pastor said he would help me.”

The pastor knew a man who had a house in the city of Abuza but worked away from home a lot. The man agreed to allow Taluwanimi to stay.

It turned out to be a disastrous move, as the teenager now found herself a prisoner in the man's house.

“I wasn't able to leave the house. He made me sleep with him. I couldn't leave. There was a phone for incoming calls but I couldn't ring out. I got pregnant but lost the baby.”

Taluwanimi began to fear he was involved in dangerous illegal activity, but she couldn't escape.

After eight years in that living nightmare, she escaped.

“I wanted to die, but I pretended everything was perfect. One evening he was drunk and forgot to hide his keys, I got out and made by way to the home of the pastor.

“I told him what had happened and he didn't believe me at first, but eventually realised I was telling the truth.”

The pastor and his wife took her in, but the man she had been living with threatened the pastors family.

“They got me a passport and paid for my passage on a ship leaving from the port in Lagos. The ship made a number of stopovers before arriving in Ireland. “There were several of us. We were kept below deck. It was really frightening.”

When she arrived in Ireland she was accommodated in a Dublin hotel initially and then in direct provision in Moate, and as soon as she was permitted she started working.

She is now out of direct provision, works in health care and is studying.

“I am glad to be in Ireland. I enjoy my job, I always dreamt of going to school and I finally feel really safe.”