Dundalk refugees appeal for more time amid claims families are being split

Some 50 refugees, mostly from Ukraine, have appealed for more time after being given less than 48 hours notice they were to be relocated from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk to the West of Ireland.

The families were told they were to be moved on Friday afternoon, with letters being pushed under their doors at about 3.30pm calling them to a public meeting at 5.30pm, after which further letters were delivered on Friday night informing them of their new accommodation locations.

Some 19 children are among those now scheduled to be moved from Dundalk to locations in Cos Kerry, Limerick and Galway. Some refugees and locals have complained the children were not given the opportunity of saying goodbye to schoolfriends, as the refugees will be boarding buses to their new locations as schools reopen on Monday.

“Marina”, a mother of four children who came to Dundalk from Kharkiv in the heavily contested east of Ukraine, said her family, which includes her husband and her mother, is to be split up, with her 71-year-old mother being sent to Limerick while the rest of the family is being sent to rural Co Galway.

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Marina said she works in Dublin two days a week, in a business which is growing, while her husband works online for a firm in Ukraine. She said the whole family had been planning to rent their own accommodation and move out of the hotel.

“But now this puts us back to the beginning,” she said. Marina said her eldest child was in second level school and along with two siblings in primary school, was integrating well with local children. He youngest was due to start at a creche next year.

Marina said many of the refugees felt they did not have enough time to make considered decisions about their futures. She said some would want to move into private accommodation, while some who come from less troubled parts of Ukraine were talking about going back.

At least two families who have not been asked to leave Dundalk have been told that they might be asked to relocate at a later date. A refugee who asked not to be named said “some people are ok with moving but most who have settled are unhappy about it. They didn’t expect that to happen”.

Emily Woodcock, a voluntary worker who has been working with the families since they arrived in March, said “all many of them need is a bit more time”. She said it was very difficult for people who had been integrating well and putting down roots. “The big issue here is time,” she said.

In response to the situation, the Department of Equality, which manages refugee resources, said on Sunday it did not comment “on individual cases”.

The department said “the State is currently in an emergency response to the ongoing crisis and transfers are necessary to ensure that applicants for international protection and all those fleeing here from Ukraine can be accommodated.

“In seeking to address immediate accommodation needs, safety and security are the paramount considerations,” the department said.

The department said it was “focused on providing immediate, temporary accommodation to people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. The State is currently providing accommodation to around 50,080 people who have fled here from Ukraine in recent weeks.

“In almost all circumstances, arrivals from Ukraine are transferred from hotels only where contracts are coming to an end or where they have been in accommodation reserved for international protection applicants.

It also said that “in some instances, refugees had been placed temporarily in accommodation reserved for international protection applicants who urgently need this accommodation”.