Peter Sutherland, the United Nations Special Representative for International Migration, has said asylum seekers in Ireland should be free to work while awaiting a decision on their immigration status, rather than waiting in direct provision.

Speaking to Newstalk Lunchtime, Mr Sutherland said that, considering the length of time it takes to reach a decision on migrants’ status, time which they currently spend in the direct provision system, banned from working, migrants should be permitted to work while awaiting a ruling on their status.

“My personal view is that during that waiting period there is nothing that should preclude their being allowed to work,” he said.

“I think this area should be changed right across the European Union. If people can get jobs reasonably in the place that they are, why shouldn’t they work?”

Mr Sutherland said he believes the problem is an EU wide one, not exclusive to Ireland, and the Union as a whole needs to reassess its laws for migrants.

“I don’t blame Ireland for this because it applies right across Europe because when you go to the camps, as I have done ... and you see thousands of people living in terrible circumstances then it may well be that they cannot take employment during the temporary period of decision making as to whether they’re going to remain, then why shouldn’t they be allowed to work?”

Ireland this week agreed to take 600 migrants from Syria and Eritrea, starting from September. It is Ireland’s contribution to an agreement between EU ministers to resettle 32,000 migrants who are forecast to arrive in Italy and Greece.

“Keeping people in camps, rather than letting them work on some form of temporary visa pending the determination and adjudication of their claim to refugee status,” is a flawed logic, Mr Sutherland argued.

“The argument has been advanced in some quarters – not in Ireland – that if you allow people to work in these circumstances that this again acts a pull factor to cause people to come into the European Union.

“If you were to argue that to a final conclusion then the more awful the circumstances of the camps, the more likely that they would not come to Europe, and that is in some way desirable.

“Now nobody is making that case, but it is the same type of argument.”

Justice Minister frances Fitzgerald admitts that putting migrants from Syria and Eritrea into direct provision is "not ideal and needs improvement."

She says she doesn't want to see Ireland follow what's happening in other countries:

Listen below to Peter Sutherland speaking to Newstalk Lunchtime