Since coming to Ireland to seek asylum, Sarah had started to see Galway as her adopted home.
“I volunteer for four or five charities here,” she says. “They’re very welcoming. And my GP, my pharmacy, my church [are all here in Galway]. It’s my home to me.”
Sarah – a pseudonym – is one of approximately 60 international protection applicants who have had to move at short notice from emergency accommodation in Doughishka, Co Galway where they have been living for roughly a year.
The women, coming from various countries including Nigeria and Afghanistan, have been moved to different locations around Ireland after it was decided that the property, which is leased by International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS), will instead house families seeking asylum.
On Monday, July 8th, the temporary residents at Cúirt Uisce were told they would have two days to vacate their apartments. About 40 of the women moved out in that window, while the remainder were given dispensation to remain in the property until July 18th.
Sarah, who remained in Cúirt Uisce until she was moved last Thursday, described the process as upsetting.
“If you had gone and you’d forgotten something, and you said you want to go grab it, they don’t allow you that. They would tell you to say what you forgot, and they would go and get it for you,” she says.
Women were moved to various parts of the country – Sarah is now living in a hostel in Dublin. “It’s very different,” she says. “Sharing a room with eight people, 10 people. It’s not easy. [Doughishka] was two people in a room and your roommates would not touch your things.”
Galway Labour councillor Helen Ogbu is very critical of the amount of notice the women received. “They were not properly informed,” she says. “Some of them got 24 hours’ notice because they had gone to work and came back ... When I heard that, I felt it was inhumane.”
Ms Ogbu contacted Galway City Council, who had not yet been made aware of the situation. She has worked with many of the women and seen their involvement in the community of Doughishka grow. Some were particularly reliant on local facilities.
“There was this lady who had a very big fall in the accommodation centre and she’s had some surgeries,” Ms Ogbu says. “She has a surgery coming up at the end of this month and she was also asked to move.”
International protection applicants are permitted to seek work after living in Ireland for six months. Some of the women had just secured jobs and were left to inform employers they would not be able to continue in their roles.
“Their work is their livelihood,” Ms Ogbu says. “And we know for sure, with the system in Ireland, if you’re going to leave your job you need to give notice ... Not getting a reference for another job, if you can find another job, would be a big problem.”
Ms Ogbu is keen to emphasise the role the women were playing in Galway’s local economy. Many international protection applicants in Ireland work in the care sector, and one of Ms Ogbu’s constituents, a woman with a disability, reached out to ask why the women in Doughishka had been treated so badly.
“She said finally, after years, she was able to connect with an assistant who she saw as a very good resource, who made life easier for her,” Ms Ogbu says. “Now, the person has been removed forcefully. How is she going to cope?”
A spokesperson for the Department of Integration said it “does not comment on transfers or occupancy figures for individual sites given the fluid and emergency nature of its requirement to provide shelter for IP applicants, and their right to anonymity”.
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