The Immigrant Council of Ireland opened 169 legal cases in 2018.

It gave full legal representation in fifty cases and advocacy supports in 119.

The Council describes this as part of an “empowerment strategy” for immigrants.

It describes its legal team as “professional, selfless and committed to pursuing justice for our clients” in its 2018 annual report.

In 2018, it provided legal advice, and in some cases, full representation in 41 cases relating to under-18s.

Family reunification

These cases related to family reunification, immigration status including regularisation, citizenship and trafficking.

The Council provided legal advice in 23 cases of trafficking from African, South American and Asian countries.

All but three were trafficked for sexual exploitation – two for domestic servitude and one for labour exploitation.

All of these cases involved women.

Citizenship advice

The issues arising involved formal identification as a trafficking victim and granting of residence, renewals of residence permission, residence as a parent of an Irish child, change of status, citizenship by naturalisation, travel document application, family reunification and proposed deportation.

The Council also advises migrants on their voting rights in the Irish political system. It produced ten videos in ten different languages to encourage migrants to register and vote and run in elections.

'Capacity-building'

They also run “capacity-building programmes to empower immigrants.

“This included improving skills in areas such as community organising, networking and social justice campaigning,” the annual report says.