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The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) is a national network of organisations and individuals working within the Traveller community. ITM was established in 1990 and now has forty Traveller organisations from all parts of Ireland in its membership. The Irish Traveller Movement consists of a partnership between Travellers and settled people committed to seeking full equality for Travellers in Irish society. This partnership is reflected in all of the structures of ITM.

Major celebration to take place on 15h March next in Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin to the mark First Anniversary of State's Acknowledgement of Traveller Ethnicity.

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Fingal Traveller's Organisation Primary Healthcare Worker: Traveller Community Applications are invited for the position of Primary Healthcare Worker. Potential candidates... Read More →

Do you have any questions or comments? Why not Get in touch with us today.

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Irish Travellers Movement - Promoting Equality for Travellers in Ireland

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The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM ) is a national network of organisations and individuals working within the Traveller community. ITM was established in 1990 and now has forty Traveller organisations from all parts of Ireland in its membership. The Irish Traveller Movement consists of a partnership between Travellers and settled people committed to seeking full equality for Travellers in Irish society.

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EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin | Official Site

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Become a member of our family

Become a member today and you can visit EPIC as often as you like. Get free unlimited entry, enjoy a programme of special events and many more benefits that last all year. It's also the perfect gift for someone eager to explore 1500 years of Irish history spanning sport, music, art, politics, food, fashion, science and more.

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EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin | Official Site

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Become a member today and you can visit EPIC as often as you like. Get free unlimited entry, enjoy a programme of special events and many more benefits that last all year. It's also the perfect gift for someone eager to explore 1500 years of Irish history spanning sport, music, art, politics, food, fashion, science and more.

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Pope Francis has said Mass for migrants on Italy's tiny island of Lampedusa, condemning the "global indifference" to their plight.

On arrival, he threw a wreath in the sea in memory of the many people who have drowned trying to reach Europe.

A small boat carrying 166 Africans - reportedly Eritreans - arrived at Lampedusa's port just hours before the Pope's plane touched down.

The island is struggling to cope with thousands of illegal migrants.

Lampedusa, about 80 miles (120km) from Tunisia, is one of the nearest gateways to Europe for Africans fleeing poverty and conflict.

Tens of thousands of migrants have made the dangerous crossing in recent years, usually packed into rickety wooden boats exposed to the elements.

As Francis arrived on a coast guard ship, dozens of Lampedusan fishing boats sailed in nearby.

The Pope is on his first pastoral visit outside Rome since his election in March.

"Pope Francis, only you can save us," read a banner on one of the boats.

"You're one of us," said a sign hanging from an apartment near the port.

Some residents threw flowers into the water and chanted "Viva il Papa" as his vessel docked.

Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, met and spoke to a few migrants, then rode in an open-topped car - rather than the Popemobile often used by predecessors - to the site for Mass, near a "boat cemetery" where the hulks of shipwrecked migrant boats lie in the sun.

His altar was a small, painted boat.

Descended from immigrants

The Pope called for a "reawakening of consciences" to counter the "indifference" shown to migrants.

"We have lost a sense of brotherly responsibility," he said, and "have forgotten how to cry" for migrants lost at sea.

He denounced the traffickers who exploited migrants and took great risks with their lives.

Francis, whose own ancestors immigrated to Argentina from Italy, has previously stood in sympathy with impoverished illegal migrants.

Lampedusa's native population of 6,000 is often outnumbered by thousands of migrants in improvised camps around the island.

The UN refugee agency says 8,400 migrants have landed in Italy and Malta in the first six months of the year, almost twice as many as last year, but down on 2011, when tens of thousands fled north Africa during the Arab Spring.

The migrants are normally transported to reception centres on the Italian mainland to be identified and ease the burden on Lampedusa.

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Pope Francis has said Mass for migrants on Italy's tiny island of Lampedusa, condemning the "global indifference" to their plight. On arrival, he threw a wreath in the sea in memory of the many people who have drowned trying to reach Europe.

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One Sunday in 2011, at the height of the Arab spring, a carpenter from the Sicilian island of Lampedusa made a decision to stop making furniture.

Francesco Tuccio was at Mass in his local church and among the congregation were bedraggled groups of newly arrived Eritrean migrants, weeping for loved ones who had drowned during the Mediterranean crossing.

After the service Lampedusa's carpenter went to the beach and began collecting the blistered, brightly coloured driftwood from the wreckage of migrant boats that had washed up on Lampedusa's shores.

Alone in his workshop, Francesco carved crosses from the timber, shivering at the wood's strange touch which he said made him think of holy relics and which smelt "of salt, sea and suffering".

He asked his parish priest to display a big, rough cross above the altar to remind the congregation of the migrants' desperate plight and he offered every migrant he saw a small cross as a symbol of their rescue and of hope for a new life.

Lampedusa and the migrant crisis

October 2013: 366 migrants died when their boat capsized off the island

April 2015: 800 people are feared to have drowned when a boat sank in Libyan waters off Lampedusa

Lampedusa is Italy's most southerly point, closer to Africa than Europe

Migrant arrivals by sea in Italy last year reached 153,842, down from 170,000 in 2014

856,723 migrants arrived by sea in Greece in 2015

Europe's migrant crisis: Special report

The carpenter and the museum BBC Radio Four PM report

Maps and graphics: Migration to Europe charted in detail
British Museum boss's final acquisition
British Museum: The Lampedusa cross

Within a few weeks, the carpenter had commissions for migrant crosses from every parish in Sicily. And within a couple of years he was making Pope Francis an altar and chalice from the driftwood.

I told that story on BBC Radio 4's PM programme last May. Listening at home in London, British Museum senior curator Jill Cook was mesmerised by Francesco's tale.

On a personal level she was deeply moved by the carpenter's kindness, and professionally, too, she was extremely excited.

Here, she thought, was an object she could acquire for the museum and which would put the migrants and their story firmly into the museum's record.

"We don't show photographs at the museum," Jill explained to me "We only show objects, and so the migrants, who have nothing, were always going to be invisible. And then I heard about the carpenter and his crosses."

Jill Cook felt so strongly that the museum should have a cross that she dared not tell her bosses what she was doing in case they stopped her.

Instead, she swore an Italian colleague to secrecy and asked him to call Mr Tuccio and commission him to make her a cross.

Lampedusa's carpenter immediately agreed to make a cross and donate it to the British Museum. The curator began to contact archaeologists she knew to sort out the complicated logistics of bringing it to London.

She needn't have bothered. Francesco Tuccio popped it in the post and one morning his parcel arrived on her desk.

There were tears as Jill Cook defiantly unwrapped her cross in front of the museum's director and other senior staff.

She remembers a great silence before she stuttered something about it being living history and deserving a place in Britain's greatest collection of historical artefacts.

More silence followed until the museum's then head, Neil MacGregor, announced that not only would he accept the cross into his collection but that he would select it as the last acquisition of his directorship.

And so a crude, wooden cross with blistered blue, green and yellow paint now stands in a large glass exhibition case at the British museum, a testimony to history in the making.

Francesco Tuccio chose the wood he'd used carefully - it came from a boat which capsized off the coast of Lampedusa on 3 October 2013 with the loss of 366 lives.

This was the disaster that prompted the Italian navy to launch their Mare Nostrum sea and rescue mission.

"I was so happy and proud when the museum contacted me. And then I asked myself a question," he said.

"If this message has reached such an important museum, visited by people from all over the world, is this enough to break down the wall in the hearts of people still indifferent to this terrible crisis?"

It is hard to stand in front of that humble cross, in the middle of so many opulent and priceless exhibits and not to be moved to tears. Its message is powerful, direct and so deeply sad.

For Jill Cook it is an object upon which hang so many stories. A testimony to an extraordinary period of history, but also she hopes, a testimony to humanity.

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How Lampedusa migrant memorial reached British Museum

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One Sunday in 2011, at the height of the Arab spring, a carpenter from the Sicilian island of Lampedusa made a decision to stop making furniture. Francesco Tuccio was at Mass in his local church and among the congregation were bedraggled groups of newly arrived Eritrean migrants, weeping for loved ones who had drowned during the Mediterranean crossing.

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UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives and protecting the rights of refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Visit our website and find out how you can support us.

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Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials have been unable to confirm a report that up to 400 people, most of them Somali, had capsized near the Egyptian coast after setting off for Italy in boats.

Officials in Egypt did not immediately respond to inquiries and Italy's coast guard, which coordinates all rescues in the waters between Italy and Libya, said it had no information about a shipwreck.

It did, however, say that six bodies had been recovered on Sunday and 108 migrants rescued from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy.

The Greek coast guard also said it had no news of a fresh tragedy, and the Somali ambassador to Egypt, cited by the BBC, could not be immediately reached.

In Geneva, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said: "Our offices in Egypt, Italy and Greece are trying to find out more about this reported incident but, so far, we cannot confirm it."

Exactly one year ago, an estimated 800 migrants drowned off the Libyan coast when the fishing boat they were travelling in collided with a mercantile vessel that was attempting to rescue them - the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in decades.

Speaking after the reports of up to 400 victims in a new tragedy, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said Europe needed to reflect in the face of "yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean in which, it seems, several hundred people have died".

In yesterday's incident, six bodies were recovered and 108 migrants were rescued from a semi-submerged rubber dinghy, Italy's coast guard said, as boat arrivals accelerate amid calm seas.

A private rescue ship called Aquarius run by humanitarian group SOS Mediterranee found the bodies on the rubber dingy yesterday, a coast guard spokesman said.

Five women were among those rescued. The coast guard had no details about the nationality of the migrants.

The migrants and the six corpses were being taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa, the coast guard said.

Italy's coast guard had earlier rescued 33 migrants from a small island off the eastern coast of Sicily on Sunday.

Almost 6,000 migrants and refugees sailed from Libya to Italy last week in what appears the start of a wave of at least 100,000 and "possibly many, many more" this year, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Meanwhile, on the first anniversary of the death of 800 migrants off Lampedusa, Oxfam has accused the EU of failing to protect people seeking refuge in Europe.

In a new report, the aid agency said that vulnerable people seeking safety and dignity remain at risk of death, torture and exploitation as they try to reach and cross the Mediterranean.

The crossing between Libya and Italy is the deadliest sea route in the world and the death toll for 2016, before today, had already reached 219.

Nearly 10,000 people attempted to use this route to reach Europe in March alone.

Total arrivals to Italy in the first quarter of 2016 were almost double the number of arrivals in the same period in 2015.
Migrant crisis to dominate EU meeting
The migration crisis will top the agenda of a two-day meeting of European Union Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Ministers that gets under way in Luxembourg today.

The meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council will discuss the external dimension of migration and finding solutions to migratory pressures.

The ministers will also discuss the EU's regional strategy for Syria and Iraq and the threat posed by the so-called Islamic State.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan will attend the meeting.

UN Special Representative for Migration has said that the Italian authorities and people are responding in a very constructive way to the migrat crisis.

Speaking to RTÉ's News at One Peter Sutherland, who is visiting migrant camps in southern Italy, said that this is the "season of major migration from Libya".

He said that the first obligation in Europe has to be to save lives.
President calls for solidarity to address challenges
President Michael D Higgins has called for solidarity and social cohesion to address the challenges facing the EU, including what he referred to as the "refugee crisis".

Speaking at the inaugural Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies annual lecture at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, President Higgins said these issues "were given a further poignant urgency" in light of today's reported deaths.

Mr Higgins spoke of what he described as "our current European paralysis" and "the crisis in democracy in Europe".

In relation to the AEU's response to the arrival of new migrants, Mr Higgins said confidence and not apprehension should have guided its response.

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Officials investigating report of mass drowning

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Egyptian, Italian and Greek officials have been unable to confirm a report that up to 400 people, most of them Somali, had capsized near the Egyptian coast after setting off for Italy in boats. Officials in Egypt did not immediately respond to inquiries and Italy's coast guard, which coordinates all rescues in the waters between Italy and Libya, said it had no information about a shipwreck.

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84 bodies have been brought to the surface despite poor weather conditions off Lampedusa island in Italy.

Authorities searched for bodies in and around the sunken boat, which was carrying mainly Eritreans and Somalis.

Rough seas have blocked efforts to recover the bodies trapped inside the submerged boat.

The boat sank on Thursday, killing an estimated 300 Eritrean and Somali men, women and children who were seeking a better life in Europe.

The bodies of 111 migrants have been recovered so far and are laid out inside an airport hangar used as a temporary morgue.

Lampedusa, a tiny fishing and tourist island that is only about 112km from Tunisia and 273km from Libya.

It has borne the brunt of a crisis that over the years has seen tens of thousands of migrants arrive in rickety and unsafe vessels.

Thursday's disaster has renewed pressure from Italy for more help from the EU to combat the decades-old migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

The survivors of the shipwreck live in terrible conditions and face criminal prosecution.

A delegation of politicians and officials said yesterday as they called for policy changes in Italy and in the European Union.

"We have the duty to tell the Italian government and the EU that their structures and policies are not only inadequate, but they're criminal," said Rosario Crocetta, Sicily's regional governor, after visiting Lampedusa's immigration centre with the mayor and a group of politicians.
Migrants paid thousands of dollars to smugglers
The centre, which is equipped to house 250 people, is now packed with more than 1,000.

Reporters and TV cameras are kept out, but clearly seen through the front gate were families with children camping under a stand of shade trees, with foam mattresses for beds and clothing drying on lines stretched between the trunks.

"It's indecent," said Tommaso Curro, a lower house deputy for the 5-Star Movement.

"The overcrowding is inhuman," said Gea Planeta Schiro, with the Civic Choice party. "More than 100 woman are using one bathroom, and they have no soap to wash their clothes."

The politicians said they spoke to a group of the survivors of Thursday's shipwreck, and were told that each migrant paid thousands of dollars to smugglers first to cross the Sahara desert, and then to buy passage across the Mediterranean.

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Rescuers recover 84 bodies off Lampedusa

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84 bodies have been brought to the surface despite poor weather conditions off Lampedusa island in Italy. Authorities searched for bodies in and around the sunken boat, which was carrying mainly Eritreans and Somalis. Rough seas have blocked efforts to recover the bodies trapped inside the submerged boat.

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I Am Immigrant : Life in Ireland for people from a different ethnic background, including a Nigerian man who tells of the struggle between his Tallaght upbringing and his parents' expectation.

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Ireland and Migration

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Anas and Ammar Al-Kadry used to be regular young guys: going to school, watching football, and playing cards and hanging out with their friends. They lived in Damascus, the once-cosmopolitan capital city of Syria. But four years ago war came to their country and ripped life as they knew it apart.

Anas and Ammar had barely heard of a place called Ireland. Anas says he knew about it from a film called P.S. I Love You and 'the potato problem'. Ammar thought Ireland was just a bit of the United Kingdom.

But now, Ireland is their home. They spent the last nine months in the reception centre for asylum seekers in the town of Ballyhaunis waiting to get refugee status and have just moved to Galway where they are trying to start studying - and a new life.

The journey to Ireland was not easy. It was dangerous and terrifying. But life in Damascus had become un-liveable. Their aunt and uncle were murdered: the name of the president written on the wall in blood. The Al-Kadry name became dangerous and, being of fighting age, Anas and Ammar were wanted by the government for military service.

The family factory - once a thriving business - was bombed and their family was confined to their house in a city with electricity and water shortages.

The Documentary on One traces Anas and Ammar's journey from the desert in Algeria to the lawless dark heart of Libya's people-smuggling trade - the city of Zuwara - and from there, the treacherous crossing in rickety overcrowded boats across the Mediterranean.

Anas and Ammar were separated by the smugglers and put on different boats. On Anas's boat, when the engine broke and the boat started taking on water, it seemed as though there was no hope for any of them.

"Why is this happening to me? I'm not a bad guy." Anas wondered in the middle of the dark night as the people began to tire after bailing water with glasses for 19 hours. He looked around the boat and wondered which child he would try to help when the boat went down. Would he swim alone and how long would it take him to drown?

Now in Ireland, the biggest thing that Anas and Ammar appreciate is not any material benefits. It is the fact that they no longer live in fear. Anas says he can feel the freedom and the safety and this is what means the most to him.

The tide of refugees and migrants shows no signs of abating as people desperate to leave the places they come from risk their lives to come to Europe. It is estimated that at least 750,000 people have risked their lives so far to reach Europe via the sea. This is the story of just two of them.
This documentary was produced in association with Irish Aid/Department of Foreign Affairs Produced and narrated by Nicoline Greer. Sound supervision by Mark Dwyer. First broadcast: Saturday 28th November 2015, 2pm This documentary features audio from rescues filmed on Medicins Sans Frontiers boats. An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries

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The story of two young Syrian men as they make the gruelling journey to Ireland, away from war torn Syria. Ammar and Anas walked across the desert from Algeria to Libya, boarded rickety boats to cross the Mediterranean and made it to a new country.

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With Syria

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In fact, in Canada, there are approximately more than five million citizens who live below the poverty line. Fortunately, the federal government is equipped with tools that create measurable and positive changes to reduce poverty significantly. With all of these, Play Against All Odds aims to work on a more strategic federal course of action, including fund increasing and mechanisms accountability to further engage with government authorities.

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Play Against All Odds is a progressive and national organization composed of people who are moved by their faith to take the necessary action for environmental and social justice by optimizing Canada's public policies. Our devotions focus on these three vital policy fields: Climate Justice Refugee...

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Our Vision Play Against All Odds seeks to foster societal growth and development through maintaining creational integrity and changing faulty practices as our faithful application to God's teachings about justice and love. We look forward to a world wherein citizens, societal organizations,...

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Although the world has seen many changes over the centuries, including technological advancements and new trends are constantly arising wherever you might be, a considerable percentage of the world's population is still living in poverty. In fact, billions of people around the world are considered below the poverty line level.
So, what can be done to reduce this? In this article, you'll discover how to alleviate poverty and how industrial hemp and cannabis-derived products like ...

Who is the low socioeconomic status? These are adults that are unemployed or do not have sufficient educational attainment. They are usually classified like this as those with blue-collar jobs. This category of people lives below the poverty level in the United State.
According to research, this group of the U.S population is also identified to have an increased rate of tobacco usage and cigarette smoking than the general population.
Adverse Effect of Cigarette and Tobacco Use
For many decades now there has been an outcry from the health sector on how harmful ...

Integration barriers discover the challenges and limitations of the current socio-economic status of refugees in Canadian society integration. As you will see in this report, Abdille Halima uncovers some discrimination forms encountered by immigrants and refugees, especially regarding finding sources of income. This report actually gathers quantitative and historical data of the refugees' experiences.
More often, people in Canada consider themselves as accepting, nonjudgmental, and compassionate towards other members of the society despite their race, religion, and ethnic differences. Yes, some people really practice "...

There has always been a profound knowledge and wisdom in indigenous lectures about the relationship among all creations. A lot of indigenous individuals perceive nature with the utmost respect. For them, nature is something they have to preserve, appreciate, and foster.
It is also of ultimate essence to a lot of indigenous individuals and groups to protect relationships among animate and inanimate Creation aspects. Respecting these vital relationships and connections is crucial for economic and ecological integrity, holistic pandemic recovery, and peaceful relations with indigenous individuals and groups.
Unfortunately, the ...

The purpose of 2020 Poverty trends is to serve as a quick guide or reference for advocacy and education. Thus, we invite researchers and readers to reflect on the actual poverty cases and the realities of Canada's systemic oppression. Canada's set of implementations and laws are required legally to preserve its citizens' rights by granting them adequate education, quality health care, and living standard. However, it is unfortunate that these have not come to reality yet among a significant percentage of Canada's population.
Below is the list of ironic facts about Canada's system:

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Skip to content In fact, in Canada, there are approximately more than five million citizens who live below the poverty line. Fortunately, the federal government is equipped with tools that create measurable and positive changes to reduce poverty significantly.

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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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Resources in English , Czech , Danish , <a href="#Resources

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A.A Gill travels to Lampedusa

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On the morning of October 3, a fishing boat leaves Tripoli. It is a small wooden boat, like a child's drawing, with a high wheelhouse. It is old, worn out, no one can remember its name. Fish are scarce, and its owner would have been happy to get rid of it for a handful of sticky notes. On board are 520 passengers; they pack every inch of the hold, a biblical human fish, and they stand crammed on deck. Each has paid about $1,600 for the one-way trip. It is a calm, warm day, the tideless Mediterranean is blue, the rickety engine warbles and chokes, slowly pushing north. Its destination is Lampedusa...

This is the last journey, whatever the outcome. The boat is a disposable...

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On the morning of October 3, a fishing boat leaves Tripoli. It is a small wooden boat, like a child's drawing, with a high wheelhouse. It is old, worn out, no one can remember its name. Fish are scarce, and its owner would have been happy to get rid of it for a handful of sticky notes.

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Searchable repository of educational resources

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Interactive Online Simulation

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The Syrian conflict has torn the country apart, leaving thousands dead and driving millions to flee their homes. Many seek refuge in neighbouring countries but others pay traffickers to take them to Europe - risking death, capture and deportation.

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Syrian Journey: Choose your own escape route

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The Syrian conflict has torn the country apart, leaving thousands dead and driving millions to flee their homes. Many seek refuge in neighbouring countries but others pay traffickers to take them to Europe - risking death, capture and deportation.

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Migration Simulation Powerpoint to accompany booklet 

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Migration Simulation Powerpoint to accompany booklet 

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..between a rock and a hard place..' booklet 

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..between a rock and a hard place..' booklet 