About 30 International Protection applicants who had been staying at a centre in Citywest, Dublin during the recent spell of cold weather protested outside the Dáil on Wednesday after earlier being ordered to leave the accommodation.
Up to 135 applicants are understood to have been impacted by what the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) described as an “illogical” move by the authorities.
It follows the conclusion of a cold weather initiative during which beds were found for people who had been told there was no accommodation available on their arrival in the State.
Applicants who spoke to The Irish Times on Wednesday said there were empty beds at Citywest even before they were told to leave. Volunteers working with them, and Nick Henderson from the IRC, said they understood the Department of Integration had decided it needed to reduce numbers at the centre in order to build some surge capacity.
“That is the line that they’ve given us, but if this isn’t a surge capacity scenario, I don’t know what would be,” Mr Henderson said.
He said it was also “illogical” that the people told to leave the centre would, presumably, be given a tent and a sleeping bag before having to go through “the sleep rough sleeper verification process”. This involves people sleeping on the streets being verified by a charity, after which they may receive an offer of accommodation. Mr Henderson said the process might typically take 36 hours, “particularly for the new arrivals”.
Aziz, from Somalia, was one of those who went directly to the Dáil after leaving Citywest. He said he was unsure where he might spend the night, but it seemed likely to be on the streets.
Having arrived in Ireland three months ago, he was sleeping rough for about 10 weeks, including by the Grand Canal for a spell, before being taken into Citywest two weeks ago as part of the department’s cold weather initiative. He had hoped it would lead to a longer term offer of accommodation.
He said he was surprised last week when he and others were told they had to leave Citywest, but this was then halted.
However, on Tuesday he received an email stating his “temporary placement” in Citywest was “no longer available” as the cold weather had passed and he would have to vacate the centre by 10am the next day.
“I don’t understand why they removed us from the place,” said Aziz. “I asked them today: ‘Where are we going to go? We have no accommodation,’ but they said, ‘we only run the place, you should go to the government’.”
He added: “We’re hoping we can get any accommodation … that we can go back there or get another accommodation because we cannot stay on the streets. The weather is very bad now.
“When I was sleeping on the streets, one night, I remember, the canal was very, very chilly and my leg was frozen. In the morning, at seven, when I woke up, I couldn’t move. Then (because he had no feeling his leg) I fell on my head.
“The weather now is not as before. In the summer, when it was good, you could maybe stay on the streets.”
His situation is complicated by the fact he is not newly arrived and the policy recently has been only to give those in the country for less than two weeks tents in which to sleep.
Mr Henderson said he was not sure if that policy was going to be adhered to given that many of the men impacted by the decision, if they had been on the streets before, had not expected to end sleeping outdoors again.
Some of the men outside the Dáil did have tents. Volunteers helping them said many would go to Tiglin, a charity designated by the government to liaise with homeless applicants, but they too said they were puzzled by the decision to eject the men from Citywest despite there apparently being enough beds.
The department said its teams “continue to manage a very limited supply” of accommodation.
“In order to prioritise people with families or who are identified as vulnerable on assessment, a limited number of beds are kept available. It is also important that temporary capacity is maintained to allow IPAS provide short-term accommodation in response to extreme weather events, such as those we have seen in recent weeks, it said.
“IPAS will continue to monitor weather forecasts and our cold weather response plan will be reactivated if extreme weather warnings issue. We continue to make every effort to help those that have not been provided with accommodation.”
