About 30 tents were erected on Saturday afternoon beside Dublin’s Mount Street bridge, as homeless asylum seekers continue what has become an almost daily routine of moving from one makeshift campsite to the next across the capital city.
It is understand many among the group of male asylum seekers, who have not been offered accommodation by the State, arrived in the country in recent days.
Volunteers supporting the men said they were hopeful the group could spend the night at the site without disturbance but were also preparing for the group to have to move on.
The latest encampment follows a Garda clearance of a makeshift camp in Irishtown on Thursday.
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A total of 2,511 male international protection applicants are currently homeless and awaiting offers of accommodation, up from 2,400 one month ago, and just over 2,000 in early June.
Those without any form of shelter continue to receive tents from Government-funded service providers, while simultaneously being informed that it is illegal to camp in Dublin city. This pattern of camping and moving has continued since March when the Government first cleared tents that appeared around Mount Street Lower outside the International Protection Office.
Those who are regularly moved on told The Irish Times earlier this month they are made to “feel crimanlised” because of a lack of accommodation and no longer feel safe camping on the streets of the capital.
Also, on Saturday, a small number of protesters, who took part in the Take Back Our Spaces demonstration outside the Department of Integration on Baggott Street Lower, tore down fencing along Mespil road which was erected by Waterways Ireland.
The fencing, which stretches from Grand Canal Street near the Google office, to Windsor Terrace in Portobello, started going up in late May after more than 100 asylum seekers were evicted from a camp on the banks of the water. Some of the fencing was temporarily pulled down in mid-July following a protest, but was quickly reinstated by gardaí.
The Take Back Our Spaces Coalition have described the fencing as “exclusionary, racist and classist” and warn the metal barriers are being used to “weaponise the immigration issue” and “divide working-class communities”.
The all-island Waterways Ireland organisation pays around €30,000 per week on maintain the fencing. It has acknowledged the use of these barriers along a public amenity “is not ideal, but it is necessary to mitigate risk to health and safety, which is our over-riding concern” and says it is working on “a landscaping and programme” as a potential solution to the problem.
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