At least 30 men, who previously slept in tents pitched outside the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street in Dublin city centre, were left without accommodation on Wednesday evening.
Asylum seekers were moved from an encampment on Mount Street to Citywest and tented accommodation at Crooksling in southwest Dublin during a major operation.
Some 285 single men were offered accommodation; 186 applicants at Citywest and a further 99 at Crooksling.
Barricades were erected where their tents previously stood, preventing them from being pitched again, while a Garda presence remained at the IPO entrance.
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Five buses and 19 taxis were used during the operation, which involved the Departments of Integration and Justice, the Garda, Dublin City Council, the Office of Public Works and the Health Service Executive.
Shortly before 5pm, three coaches arrived at the IPO to take more asylum seekers to new accommodation.
Omar, a 23-year-old from Somalia, was among those waiting to be taken to new accommodation.
“We used to sleep here, they took all our tents,” he said. “We appreciate it and we don’t have any choice, probably it is to a good place. Here, the environment is not good, it’s not tidy and it’s cold.”
“People are excited,” he said adding: “Nobody is coming back.”
However, the three buses left an hour later, with about 30 men remaining on Mount Street.
Speaking just one hour after initially expressing excitement to be moving to more secure accommodation, Omar said: “They told us they don’t have any accommodation left, we don’t have anywhere, we’re just going to maybe go to the park.”
Those without accommodation have been told they will be contacted by email.
“Maybe after tonight, maybe after tomorrow, maybe after one month, we cannot imagine,” said Nasir, from Somalia.
The 26-year-old, who arrived in Ireland in January, said he waited for 10 hours for a spot on one of the buses. “Why couldn’t they have told us before?” he asked.
Some of those left without accommodation crossed the street and took a bus towards the city centre. Others remained at the IPO for at least an hour, but were told there would be no accommodation tonight and left to go to a mosque.
Meanwhile, volunteers who have been providing support to those sleeping at the IPO over the past several months said about 30 men have left their new accommodation and are returning to the city centre.
It is understood that some of those offered accommodation at Citywest told the volunteers that there was not enough room, resulting in some having to leave.
Separately, those offered accommodation but returning from Crooksling have told volunteers that it is cold and “cut off” from the city. The Department of Integration has been contacted for comment.
A number of inernational protection applicants who are believed to have been staying at other locations subsequently sought accommodation at Citywest, which is now at capacity. Their details were taken, and they will be offered accommodation as it becomes available.
Speaking in Crooksling, where there are “robust, weatherproof tents”, two men in their 30s who did not wish to be identified, from Morocco and Egypt, said they had arrived at St Brigid’s Home from the IPO on one of three buses, after being told they were “committing an offence”.
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On Monday morning, International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) staff handed them a sheet in several languages, explaining that they were to be moved to alternative accommodation by bus, and that they should pack up their belongings.
The sheet said that international protection (IP) applicants did not have permission to stay in “this area of Mount Street”.
“You are committing an offence. If you refuse to come to the available or you later return to stay in this area you may be moved on by An Garda Síochána (Police) and you may be arrested and prosecuted,” the sheet read.
A statement from the Department of the Taoiseach described the accommodation at Crooksling as “10 to 12 person robust, weather-proof tents”, with ancillary facilities.
Some of the men are understood to have not taken up their offers of accommodation, and the Department of the Taoiseach said IPAS would continue to work with them.
The number of tents in the area surrounding the IPO on Mount Street had been steadily rising since December. By 11am, all tents had been removed while a cleaning operation remained ongoing, with council staff seen hosing down the surrounding area.
Meanwhile, at a bus stop across from St Brigid’s Home in Crooksling, Dia Mohammed said he was happy to be moved to new accommodation.
Mr Mohammed, from Jenin in the West Bank, said he arrived in Ireland seven days ago and spent that time living at the IPO in “difficult” conditions. It took him four months to get from Palestine to Ireland, via Egypt, Turkey and France, he said.
Taoiseach Simon Harris referred to the early morning move as a “humanitarian operation”, saying the situation on Mount Street had become “completely unacceptable”.
Gardaí and Dublin City Council have been told by the Department of the Taoiseach and the Attorney General’s office that they are expected to apply the law and prevent any return to Mount Street as well as any future encampments that might appear on city streets.
On Tuesday, a residents group in Dublin’s south inner city called for those living in tents in the Mount Street area to be moved to a “more appropriate space of accommodation or interim shelter” or it would “seek legal relief in the courts”.
Speaking to The Irish Times after asylum seekers were moved on Wednesday, Maeve Heaney, who is leading the residents group, said she was “pleased the authorities have listened and acted on the concerns of residents”.
“We’re happy with the clean up the council is doing. People continue to arrive looking for the IPO and they need to be continually supported,” she said.
“In a sense we’re pleased but it’s a difficult situation for everyone and I don’t want people to be on the streets. But it wasn’t one tent or two tents, it was an encampment, and an encampment is illegal”.
“We know some of the refugees on the street and they didn’t want to be in a tent either. It’s absolutely right they’re somewhere with better facilities,” Heaney said.
Elsewhere, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said the operation on Mount Street was about ensuring the asylum seekers who had been living in tents there will be in “safe, secure accommodation”.
Mr Donohoe added: “I can’t rule out that in any given night, in any given day that people who are in difficult circumstances might erect a tent.
“But what I am very confident in is that our State agencies will take all the steps that are needed to try to prevent something of this scale occurring again.”
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