Three homeless families, including six children under 13, presented at the International Protection Office (IPO) on Friday and found it closed.
The families, from Africa and Asia, waited a number of hours before volunteers and male asylum seekers sleeping in tents at the IPO contacted gardaí and arranged that they make their way to a Garda station.
One family from Nigeria included a boy aged 13 and two girls aged nine and 11. Another, from Bangladesh, included two children under five. A third, a single mother, aged 25 from Nigeria, said she had slept in McDonald’s in the city centre on Thursday evening with her three-year-old daughter.
The first family said they had been helped by “a person” to travel to Belfast and told to make their way to the IPO in Dublin. The father, who became very distressed, said they had been travelling since Monday and had arrived at the IPO on Friday morning.
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The single mother said she had arrived in Dublin from France on Thursday and had arrived at the IPO after 6pm – after it had closed for the Easter weekend. She said she did not know where to go and had gone “to the street”. The third family was reluctant to speak except to say where they were from.
Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said asylum seekers with children arriving via airports or sea ports would come to the attention of border authorities and would be brought to accommodation. However, where they enter from Northern Ireland or through entry points other than ports this might not happen.
At about 2pm on Friday, the families were standing under shelter from the rain outside the IPO as homeless male asylum seekers liaised with volunteer Olivia Headon, a student and former aid worker, by phone on how to advise the five parents. Ms Headon contacted Pearse Street gardaí who, she said, initially said they were not the appropriate authority to assist the families but then agreed they should make their way to the Garda station.
At about 2.30pm Noel Wardick, chief executive of the Dublin City Community Co-op, was on site counting the increasing number of tents pitched around the IPO. Alerted to the families’ situation he agreed to accompany them to Pearse Street Garda station. The Nigerian families agreed to go, while the Bangladeshi family, fasting for Ramadan, chose not to and left the area. It was unclear where they would sleep on Friday night.
A notice in the main IPO entrance advised it was closed until 9am on Tuesday. “If you have an issue with accommodation please contact IPAS [International Protection Accommodation Service]” and gave an email address. None of the families appeared to understand this and there was no advice specifically for newly-arrived asylum seekers.
Mr Wardick said he was “shocked” there was no phone number for newly-arrived asylum seekers presenting outside office hours. Gardaí in Pearse Street were “very compassionate and sympathetic” but appeared unaware of any protocol for asylum-seeking families without accommodation presenting outside office hours.
“At first they were talking about referring them to Dublin City Council homeless services and I had to explain these families could not access ordinary emergency accommodation.”
Gardaí made contact with the IPO by phone and accommodation was sourced for them for the weekend. “It is just an inhumane way to treat families. It is incredible there is not something better in place for this situation. If there hadn’t been the men living at the IPO who contacted volunteers, god knows what would have happened to these families.”
Both An Garda Síochána and the Department of Children, which has responsibility for the IPO, have been contacted for comment.
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