Direct Provision residents don't make compaints because some fear their children will be taken away from them, according to a new report.
The Ombudsman for Children study found that staff were not trained in child protection, despite assurances that they had been, while parents were wrongly warned that their children may be removed by child protection services if they did not supervise them properly
The inquiry also reveals that a lack of interpretive services had effectively gagged parents who may have wished to make a complaint on behalf of their children.
Among the recommendations were the swift introduction of a well resourced quality assurance mechanism to monitor complaints, child welfare concerns and extensive cultural sensitivity training
Niall Muldoon is the Ombudsman for Children - he says threats like taking children can't be tolerated.
"That's the essence of control, that's pure power.
"We've encouraged the service to make sure that everybody involved, anybody that's contracted in the services now have to be properly trained in child protection, they have to be properly trained in caring for people in these circumstances.
"They cannot be making these sort of threats, because you can imagine these people's parents have come through trauma, through war."
