Sanctuary in Politics 2021 goes online! By Tian Yu Lloyd

Due to the impact of the global pandemic, Sanctuary in Politics 2021 came back on Zoom, like many other training courses. While we miss the human interaction, we also very much appreciate the flexibility zoom based training has allowed us to enjoy.

This year, 25 refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants and other migrants who originally came from Africa, Middle East, Central and South-East Asia, as well as South America, who are currently based in 8 counties across Ireland, joined us to learn about how to work with the political system in Ireland.

The four teaching sessions covered important elements in Irish politics including

  • campaigning and advocacy
  • Irish political history and single transferable vote system of proportional representation
  • community radios, dealing with Irish journalists and social media,
  • workplace and housing rights and where migrants can look for support in Ireland.

As per tradition, organizers from City of Sanctuary Dublin relied on the goodwill of people in Ireland to contribute in the training, and people were very generous to support our project.

The course has again received great feedback from participants. We believe many of them will become important voices for real diversity and integration in Ireland.