Northern Ireland ignoring immigrants under bill of rights

Ethnic minorities and migrant workers that aim to settle in Northern Ireland would suffer from anonymity if a new bill of rights proposal is adopted says a local immigrants rights organisation.

The Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (Nicem) has voiced its concerns that the current draft of the planned bill of rights would exclude close to 80,000 foreign migrants already residing in the province. The main sticking point for opponents of the bill is that it only recognises two comminutes as being in existent in Northern Ireland – Catholic/ nationalist and Protestant/ unionist.

The bill does provide migrants with the right to vote but no other specific rights have been granted, leading welfare groups to question whether ignoring the problem was further stigmatizing migrants, many of whom have faced persecution in the past. Nicem has written to Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland Secretary, to urge him to halt the bill in order that a major review is undertaken. Nicem has also demanded that immigrant economic rights be given greater protection in any amendment, arguing that the rising immigrant population is vastly under-represented in Northern Irish society and economic circles. The civil service, for example, only employs 0.2 percent of its staff from ethnic backgrounds.

Nicem claim that the 80,000 migrant workers and also their families are entitled to better protection under any bill of rights but that under the present draft they are effectively invisible.