Tag Archives: Bulelani Mfaco

LAHINCH author and activist Ruairí McKiernan, South African activist and Knockalisheen Direct Provision centre resident Bulelani Mfaco, and Bellharbour poet and activist Sarah Clancy are to help lead a major event honouring legendary South African humanitarian and anti-apartheid campaigner Desmond Tutu, who passed away last Sunday at the age of 90. The event, which takes place online on Thursday (December 30), is being organised by Afri, an Irish peace and human rights organisation. Archbishop Tutu was the organisation’s patron for almost thirty years, after it hosted his first visit to Ireland 1984. Since then, Afri hosted the revered human rights leader several times, including in 1991 when he led the annual Afri famine walk in Doolough, County Mayo. Afri helped lead the Irish campaign against apartheid and arranged for the Dunnes Stores strikers, who refused to handle South African fruit, to meet Tutu in London while on his way to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. This meeting famously helped internationalise the campaign against …

A CLARE-based advocate for those seeking asylum in Ireland has said he remains hopeful that plans to end Direct Provision by 2023 will succeed, despite considerable opposition from the Department of Housing. South African national Bulelani Mfaco, who lives in Knockalisheen, is a member of an expert group, led by Dr Catherine Day. In October, the panel published a report calling for a new asylum system to be put in place over the next three years. The plan recommends housing applicants in a State-owned centre for three months, then helping them to move to own-door accommodation with the support of a scheme similar to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). While Mr Mfaco and fellow members of the advisory panel argue that the proposed system would lead to cost savings for the State and more humane living conditions for asylum seekers, there is considerable resistance from the Department of Housing. Submissions by the department said the plan has the potential to …

A CLARE-based migrants’ rights activist has given a broad welcome to a ground-breaking new report which recommends that the Direct Provision system should end by 2021. A publication compiled by an expert advisory panel working under the stewardship of Dr Catherine Day will now inform a White Paper being put together on the issue of accommodating those seeking asylum in Ireland. Bulelani Mfaco lives at the State-owned Knockalisheen direct provision centre, and is a prominent member of the Movement of Asylum Seekers of Ireland (MASI). The South African was also a member of Dr Day’s expert advisory committee. While MASI, who made a detailed submission last year to the committee, welcomed recommendations on the provision of housing, healthcare, and welfare payments to asylum seekers who do not stay in reception centres, it highlighted areas that continued to be of concern. Mr Mfaco noted that asylum seekers would continue to be open to discrimination under the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). In …

NEW figures showing that Clare is among the counties with the largest number of applications for asylum have prompted concerns over the relatively high concentration of people living in Direct Provision here. With 378 applications from people living in this county, Clare ranks fourth in the latest data. Three counties – Cork, Meath and Kerry – have a greater number of applications. According to Bulelani Mfaco of the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), the number of applications reflects the relatively high number of Direct Provision centres located in Clare, as well as the level of overcrowding within them. “There is a high concentration of asylum seekers in the county between the centres at Knockalisheen, Ennis and Lisdoonvarna,” said Mr Mfaco who is lives at the Knockalisheen centre in Meelick. “That is why the figure for Clare is so high. There is also the issue of the rate of occupancy of the centres to consider. At one point, there …