There are plans to accommodate arrivals from Ukraine and others seeking asylum in tents at three further sites as the State continues to grapple with an “emergency” shortage of housing for refugees and asylum-seekers.
Refugees from the war in Ukraine and asylum seekers from elsewhere are to be accommodated in tents set up in the Gormanstown Army camp this week, which has capacity for 320 people.
The Department of Children and Equality confirmed preparations had begun to set up more tented accommodation at three direct provision centres. The Defence Forces are assisting in setting up the tented accommodation, with expected capacity across the three locations yet to be determined.
In recent days some arrivals into the State were left sleeping in the old terminal building at Dublin Airport as the Citywest reception facility in Dublin reached maximum capacity.
A department spokesman said no one was left sleeping in Dublin Airport on Saturday night, while more than 800 people were accommodated at Citywest. “Work is ongoing to develop an additional site to assist with capacity issues at Citywest,” the spokesman said. The second reception site to house new arrivals is separate to plans for further tented accommodation.
Speaking on Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the State’s response to those arriving seeking refuge had been “quite remarkable” given the “unprecedented nature” of the numbers coming into the country.
More than 40,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since the Russian invasion, with recent months also seeing a surge in the numbers of asylum-seekers from other countries applying for international protection.
“The pressure will continue but we are getting to grips with it over the weekend in terms of the emergency that occurred late last week because of the surge in people seeking international protection,” Mr Martin said. “We are very concerned about what can happen in the next number of months in terms of famine in the Horn of Africa, brought about by drought and Russia’s determination to prevent grain being exported from Ukraine.”
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan was challenged on RTÉ Radio’s This Week programme on Sunday on why there has been issues housing refugees in July when it had been expected earlier in the crisis that 40,000 people would have arrived by Easter.
The Green Party leader said Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman had been “open and honest” that the Government would be looking at “difficult measures” like opening up Gormanston camp and that “we would not have sufficient places.”
He said like every country taking in Ukrainian refugees it is a “real challenge”, and he pointed out that the number of people seeking international protection from elsewhere has been “a multiple of what might have been expected” – partly due to hardline UK immigration policy.
Mr Ryan said that 2,000 people were currently in shared accommodation offered by the public, and there was a prospect this could be brought up to around 6,000. “That hasn’t been as quick as we would want but that will help … But we will also have to look at other settings because this war is not ending soon.”
He said the current plans were for coping with around 200 arrivals per day from Ukraine and other countries. Mr Ryan signalled that mechanisms were being examined to “reduce that flow” like visa requirements or other measures “because we do need to manage it”.
Ireland is obliged to take Ukrainian refugees under an EU agreement, and Ministers have insisted there are no plans to cap numbers, with Mr Ryan’s comments suggesting measures may be taken around asylum-seekers from other countries.
A Government source said that there are no measures planned to restrict people coming from Ukraine.
The Department of Justice is responsible for immigration management and it has already indicated that it is looking at restarting deportations – which were paused during Covid – and ways to speed up the processing of international protection applications.
