The council of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) tonight voted in favour of a motion to promote the education of refugees and asylum seekers who wish to continue their study in Ireland.
The motion, which was conceived collaboratively between TCDSU’s International Students Officer, Rosalie Engels, and DU Amnesty’s campaign group, S.O.S. Europe, aims to raise awareness about the refugee crisis among the student body with the view to lobbying college to act.
TCDSU will not take a stance on the refugee crisis, but rather will focus only on education. Speaking to The University Times earlier today, Engels stated that she saw the motion as an extension of her mandate which is to deal with the issues faced by international students: “I think [this motion] broadens this mandate and also includes those students who aren’t yet Trinity students but who are students in Ireland now who have no way of becoming Trinity students and making it easier for them”.
DU Amnesty set up the campaign group “S.O.S. Europe” in September, which is described on their Facebook page as “for anyone who wants to play an active part in connecting with Amnesty Ireland and other refugee support centres across Ireland, help plan events and discussions on the topic”. The Facebook group currently has 96 members.
Jerome Wynne-Morgan, Campaigns Co-ordinator for DU Amnesty S.O.S. Europe, commented that “the motion is designed to act as a base to facilitate further action in certain areas, especially the education of refugees – with Trinity being a potential participant in that – but it is broad so it could be the base for different forms of action”. Speaking about the collaboration between DU Amnesty and the union, he said that “we operate within Trinity so it was essential to collaborate with the SU as they represent the whole student body and this made the campaign more powerful.”
