The concurrent crises of housing and refugees in Ireland have inevitably led to unsettling episodes on the nation’s roads. In an announcement made last autumn, the Government acknowledged its inability to continue providing shelter for adult male asylum seekers. Since then, over 100 temporary dwellings, accommodating some of these individuals, have emerged near the International Protection Office premises on Mount Street in the heart of Dublin.
On a recent Saturday morning, personnel from International Protection Accommodation Services arrived at the location to advise the occupants that they were to be transferred by bus and to abandon their temporary shelters. They were taken to Crooksling, a vacant establishment in the south-western area of Dublin, and given new tents to set up on the nearby land.
In a matter of hours, many had embarked on a return trip, some on foot, to Mount Street, only to find their dwelling places had been eliminated by service providers. By the start of the week, new shelters had cropped up, although some individuals were reportedly roaming the city’s thoroughfares.
Observers have been swift to infer that the operation was devised to conceal the encampment from the public eye ahead of St Patrick’s Day. However, it seems more plausible that the action was motivated by a growing sense of pressure in the days leading up to it, a result of enhanced media attention on the declining conditions on Mount Street, which lacks access to sanitation and water facilities. Rumours of disease outbreaks are likely to have fuelled the sense of urgency. Certainly, the visibility of the tents in Dublin’s commercial centre is a political inconvenience and points to a deficiency in humanitarian efforts. The Minister for Higher Education, Simon Harris, said in London, a day before the clearance, that the tents underscored the “pressing need” for swift temporary solutions to ameliorate asylum seekers’ conditions.
Nevertheless, the Government’s reaction could be regarded as myopic, haphazard, and inadequate given the magnitude of the situation. Although there’s disagreement about the level of services provided at Crooksling, the immediate departure of a significant number of those relocated there implies they did not meet essential needs. Some refugees also voiced unease about the anti-immigrant demonstrators present at the gates.
Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman is expected to present fresh plans to the Cabinet this week, aiming at a sustained strategy to tackle the problem of sheltering an increasingly larger influx of refugees seeking asylum every month. However, the happenings over the recent weekend haven’t helped in shaking off the impression that the Government is struggling and divided over what is swiftly turning into a humanitarian crisis that could have severe ramifications.