Who are we?
Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI)
Established in 2001, MRCI is a national organisation concerned with the provision of supports to migrant workers and their families and empowering migrant workers through community work practice to achieve policy change. MRCI’s vision is an Ireland where migrant workers and their families participate fully and equally in an intercultural society. Our mission is to promote the conditions for social and economic inclusion of migrant workers and their families.
MRCI works directly with migrants who become undocumented, with people who have been trafficked for forced labour, with minority ethnic young people, and with migrant workers in domestic work, homecare, restaurants, agri-food, hotel and catering, cleaning, agriculture and fisheries. Our work combines frontline services, policy, and advocacy with a community work process that builds the critical participation of migrants and supports their leadership on migrant rights issues. The MRCI Centre provides, information, legal advocacy and support and maps trends and issues and builds an evidence base through effective data capture and analysis to shape policy and legislative agendas.
Drop in Centre (DIC)
In 2018, MRCI worked on 1,949 cases providing information, advocacy and assistance to people from 111 countries.
Core areas of concern in the DIC is responding to breaches of employment rights and a growing numbers of complex immigration cases. DIC caseworkers support migrant workers in recalling their experiences, identifying core issues and breaches, identifying options available to the person, and assisting that person in taking the next steps in their individual circumstances.
Legal Advocacy
MRCI also provides legal advocacy on strategic case work in the area of human trafficking, employment and immigration law including undocumented migrants and workers in vulnerable sectors of the labour market.
MRCI supports migrant workers to access their rights and entitlements through the provision of legal and advocacy support. As a part of this support, in some cases, we can prepare submissions and provide representation on key cases at the Work Place Relation Bodies.
In addition, MRCI conducts assessments of potential victims of human trafficking for labour exploitation cases and preparing reports for An Garda Siochana.
Outreach Community Work (PEACE Project)
The Crossing Borders, Breaking Boundaries project is a cross-border project of which MRCI is the Lead Partner, in collaboration with Community Intercultural Programme, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and Ulster University.
The project aims to tackle sectarianism, discrimination, racism and exploitation by EU and non-EU migrants in precarious and insecure sectors of the labour market along the border region of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
MRCI Development Workers provide an independent, representative, issue-based advocacy service face to face. They also provide information and advice over the phone, email. They are also developing relationships and delivering community work to increase the capacity of migrant workers in the border region to secure their labour rights and enhance their leadership skills.
Another key objective of the project is to conduct research on the profile, cross-border dynamics, and issues impeding labour market integration of black and minority ethnic workers in the agricultural, food processing and services sectors. As such, the Development Workers also collect anonymised Administrative Data from project participants, and send directly to Ulster University as part of our research partnership.
Our registered address is 13 Lower Dorset Street, Dublin 1.
We are funded by the various funders that include the following:
- Tomar Trust
- Columban Missionary Society
- Open Society Foundation
- Scheme to Support National Organisations in the Community & Voluntary sector (SSNO)
- Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF)
- European Social Fund (ESF)
- EU’s Peace IV Programme
- Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU)
- Department of Justice-Dormant Accounts
- Camelite Fathers
- Tusla-Department of Children & Youth Affairs
- Justice At last EU Project
- Dublin City Council
- EU Compact
- One Foundation
We provide an independent, representative, issue-based advocacy service face to face. We also provide information and advice over the phone, email and online webform.
This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or from others, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 (as amended) and from 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR), the data controller is the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.
Our data protection contacts are:
What personal information do we collect from you?
We may collect a range of personal information from you, depending on your circumstances and the services you require. You may give us personal data by:
- Corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. We ask you to disclose only as much information as is necessary to provide you with our services or to submit a question, suggestion or comment in relation to our services.
- Attending meetings with us. These meetings might include the provision of personal data by you, or the filling in of forms required for us to provide a service to you.
- By attending at an office where CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) is in operation.
In some cases, we may receive data from you that relates to another individual, for example, in a joint bank statement. In these cases, we will use the information purely for the purposes of the provision of services to you and we will not otherwise process the data.
For full list on types of data we might collect from you please see our Privacy Statement, Types of Data MRCI Collects.
What information about you do we obtain from others?
When you use our services, we may obtain, with your authorisation, the following categories of personal data from others:
- Records relating to your situation, for example, your file from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Department of Justice, An Garda Síochána, Health Service Executive (HSE) or correspondence from solicitors, healthcare or residential service providers.
The records that we may obtain will vary depending on your circumstances and the third parties involved. In obtaining this information, we may use a variety of processes such as data subject access requests, Freedom of Information requests and a copy of your authorisation for us to access this information.
Why do we collect this information?
We collect the information in order to provide you with our services.
We may use this information:
- To contact you to arrange appointments.
- To provide information and support to you and to understand your options.
- To assess your circumstances and to explore potential courses of action with you.
- To provide an advocacy service by engaging with third parties in relation to your situation, including public and private organisations.
- To assist you to fill in forms relating to public and social services.
- To assist you in any steps involved in accessing public or social services.
- To keep you informed in relation to your advocacy case.
- To conduct statistical analysis and reporting, for training purposes, for quality review purposes and for social policy purposes.
- To fulfil our obligations before our funders. To conduct statistical analysis and send annual, quarterly and monthly reports to our funders.
The legal bases for the processing of your data are:
- That you have provided consent for the processing for the provision of our services and signed relevant form
- Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us as the controller.
- Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject.
From time to time, we may also collect sensitive or ‘special category’ data in the provision of our services. The legal basis for the processing of your special category data is:
- That you have provided consent for the processing for the provision of our services.
Who do we share this information with?
We may share your personal data with the Migrant Rights Centre Management Board and with public and private organisations in order to provide you with our services.
We attach at Schedule 1 a list of entities and categories of entities with which your personal data may be shared with.
In addition, we may disclose your personal information to third parties in the following exceptional circumstances:
- If there is a risk of serious harm to you or to another person or to property
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your information in order to comply with any legal obligation
- If we are required to give evidence in court
- To get legal advice or to defend a legal right
- In the event of a disclosure relating to child abuse
How long do we keep hold of your information?
The time periods for which we retain your information depends on the type of information and the purposes for which we use it. We will keep your information for no longer than is required or permitted.
- Where we have provided you with once-off information and advice or once-off advocacy we will retain your information for seven years.
- Where we have completed an advocacy case for you (for example Workplace Relations Commission Complaint and Adjudication representation or Immigration case under the Section 3 of the Immigration Act), we will retain your information for seven years.
- Where the advocacy case is ongoing, we will retain your information as long as the case is ongoing and for two years after the case was closed.
Do we transfer your information outside the European Union or European Economic Area?
No. Unless specifically requested by the service user and written consent provided.
What are your rights with respect to your personal data?
You have the following rights:
- The right to access the personal data we hold about you.
- The right to require us to rectify any inaccurate personal data about you without undue delay.
- The right to have us erase any personal data we hold about you in circumstances such as where it is no longer necessary for us to hold the personal data or, in some circumstances, if you have withdrawn your consent to the processing.
- The right to object to us processing personal data about you such as processing for profiling or direct marketing.
- The right to ask us to provide your personal data to you in a portable format or, where technically feasible, for us to port that personal data to another provider provided it does not result in a disclosure of personal data relating to other people.
- The right to request a restriction of the processing of your personal data.
Where our processing of your personal data is based on your consent to that processing, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time but any processing that we have carried out before you withdrew your consent remains lawful.
You may exercise any of the above rights by filling in a Subject Access Request form or by sending us a written request via post to the following address:
GDPR
Migrant Rights Centre Ireland
13 Lower Dorset Street,
Dublin 1
You may also send your request via email to gdpr@mrci.ie.
You may lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority with respect to our processing of your personal data. The supervisory authority in Ireland is the Data Protection Commissioner. The website is www.dataprotection.ie.
What will happen if we change our privacy notice?
This notice may change from time to time, and any changes will be posted on the www.mrci.ie website and will be effective when posted.
This notice was last updated on June 2019.
How can you contact us?
Our data protection contact can be contacted at any of the contact points listed above.
Schedule 1
Third party | Description |
Any legal successors to the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland | • Where the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland transfers its business to another organization or merges with another organization. |
Migrant Rights Centre Ireland Board | • In conducting statistical and case analysis for the purposes of reporting, training and social policy• In the investigation of a complaint in accordance with our complaints procedures
• In order to provide quality or case reviews |
ICT providers (for e.g. International Network Systems Limited (INS) | • Where ICT services such as hardware, software, network facilities, case management systems, telephone systems or similar are provided by or maintained by a third party. |
Archiving companies | • Where we archive our files in facilities provided by a third party. |
Funders (e.g Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF)) | • Where we are successful funding applicants we are obliged to share statistical data and reports with our funders. No personal data that identifies the person is shared, only anonymous data. For more information regards what exact data is collected and shared for funding reporting purposes please see “Types of Personal Data collected by MRCI” document |
Depending on your circumstances, and with your authorisation, we may also share your data with other third parties.
Third party | Description |
Private organisations | Where we engage with a private organisation on your behalf, for example, with a service provider. |
Public bodies | Where we refer you to a public body or assist you in accessing the services of a public body, for example, the Workplace Relations Commission. |
Voluntary organisations | Where we refer you to a voluntary organisation or assist you in accessing the services of a voluntary organisation, for example, the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC). |
NGOs (Non-governmental Organisations) | Where we refer you to other NGOs or assist you in accessing the services of other NGOs, for example, the Irish Refugee Council/ Immigrant Council of Ireland/ Crosscare/ Focus Ireland an others |
Government departments /agencies | Where we engage with a government agency or department on your behalf, for example, with a Department of Justice and/or Department of the Social Protection and/or An Garda Síochána |
Law of courts/ Tribunals/ Workplace Relations Commission | Where we engage with courts and/or Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on your behalf as your representative and advocate |