Removal proceedings of the steel fences, which were installed alongside the Grand Canal in Dublin to deter homeless individuals and asylum seekers from pitching tents, have commenced. On Wednesday, labourers started to dismantle the contentious barriers at Portobello, leaving a significant stretch of the canal free from fencing by late afternoon. The fence sections were being collected and stacked by the group of four.
Questioned as to whether the rest of the canal will undergo a similar process, they confirmed that it would happen in the near future. The labourers seemed to be commissioned from a private firm. Both Dublin City Council and Waterways Ireland, responsible for overseeing the canal network, have been approached for remarks.
The decision to start the removal process transpired two weeks after the commencement of round-the-clock patrols by Waterways Ireland to prevent homeless asylum seekers from setting up tents and ensuring that the erected fences to hinder settlements remained intact. The body spanning all of Ireland communicated earlier that it had high hopes for this ‘pilot programme’ to help eliminate the fences that have been up since May.
Posted on their official website, Waterways Ireland asserted that the patrolling was to obstruct the formation of illicit camps and to avoid damage to its property and fences. “Any illegal camps and vandalising of properties reported earlier and henceforth will continue to be handled by An Garda Síochána”, it added. Voicing serious worry for the well-being of those staying in canal-side tents, they have held meetings with local residents’ groups to consider their concerns and discuss potential strategies for reopening canal accessibility. Accelerating a landscaping and biodiversity project is one of the options under examination.
The fences have been the target of several complaints directed at Waterways Ireland, with over 90 received between May and mid-August.
The Coalition for Reclaiming Our Spaces, which demonstrated against the barriers, labelled it as “discriminatory, racist, and class-based”. They claimed it was utilised to “manipulate the problem of immigration” and “fracture the unity of working-class areas”.
As of Tuesday, there were 2,746 male individuals seeking asylum who were “awaiting a proposal for accommodation”. Their numbers have risen since the 4th of December when the Department for International Protection of Children’s Accommodation Service (IPAS) ceased to offer housing to single, adult male asylum applicants upon their request for asylum.