One week ago, the Government admitted the State’s accommodation system had reached “breaking point”.
A number of asylum seekers are now being temporarily housed in Defence Forces tents on the grounds of accommodation centres, while there have been reports of those in the centre at Dublin’s Citywest being forced to sleep on chairs.
And while large numbers of offers to house refugees are still coming in from Irish businesses and individuals, the majority only want to help Ukrainians.
Most of these offers are not being extended to the 8,000 people from other countries who have arrived in Ireland in the past nine months seeking asylum.
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Fiona Hurley, chief executive of Nasc, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre, told the podcast there was “very little sign of long term planning that will allow that tented accommodation to be gone by October”
She also said that years of negative profiling of international protection applicants by Government officials was playing a role in people’s reluctance to open up their homes to asylum seekers. “By contrast the state has come out and asked people please can you provide accommodation for Ukrainians. They’ve tapped into this huge groundswell of support by Irish people to do something. And the conflict in Ukraine is much more visible for people than other conflicts.”
There are now about 15,000 people in the International Protection Accommodation Services system, in addition to the 35,000 refugees from Ukraine being accommodated by the State.
And meanwhile, gardaí say the accommodation crisis is stirring up anger, and in some cases violence, in communities when temporary accommodation centres open at short notice.
And with no solution to the accommodation crisis on the horizon, there is little hope the Government will meet its target of ending direct provision by 2024.
Today, on In the News, we discuss how Ireland’s asylum and refugee accommodation system reached breaking point.
In The News is presented by Sorcha Pollak and Conor Pope and produced by Declan Conlan, Suzanne Brennan and Aideen Finnegan.
