BACKGROUND:Asylum seekers in uproar about imminent transfer from the Mosney centre, writes JAMIE SMYTH
Children play in the playground, residents stand around chatting on street corners and a few people are shopping at the onsite supermarket, which stocks yams and gari – staple foods in Africa. This is daily life for the 800 asylum seekers who call Mosney home.
Once a Butlin’s holiday centre, Mosney has since 2001 accommodated asylum seekers as part of the Government’s direct provision system. This system was established in April 2000 as an emergency response to the growing number of people applying for asylum.
A decade later, almost 6,000 asylum seekers still live in the hostels, half of them for more than three years and many in overcrowded conditions.
Mosney, the biggest centre contracted by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) to care for asylum seekers, is regarded as the one with the best conditions for its residents.
“I’ve been in several hostels, including one that we used to call ‘Guantánamo’ because of the poor conditions,” says one Mosney resident. “In Mosney, you don’t have to share bedrooms so you have some privacy and you live in a chalet with a cooker.”
The resident, who does not wish to be named for fear he will be punished for speaking out, is one of at least 150 asylum seekers at Mosney who received transfer letters this week from the agency.
The transfers are a cost-cutting measure by the Department of Justice, which wants to reduce the €90 million annual cost of the direct provision system.
“In light of reductions in the number of asylum seekers entering the State and the reduction in demand for RIA accommodation generally, the RIA has reduced its contracted capacity in order to ensure that value for money is maintained in the provision of direct provision services,” the department said.
Mosney residents are in uproar about the transfers, which are due to begin on Tuesday.
“I’ve been living in Mosney for almost five years waiting for my asylum claim to be processed,” says Ivo, who is from Cameroon.
“I have a child living close by in Drogheda, which is convenient for visits and now I’m told I’m being moved to Dublin next week. It’s inhumane.”
Ivo adds: “If they want to save money, I think we’d all agree to share bedrooms in Mosney rather than be sent away to a totally new centre somewhere else.”
Fawaz, an asylum seeker from Yemen, has lived within the direct provision system in the Republic for almost five years. He also got one of the letters this week.
“First they put me in a hostel in Killarney. Then they moved me to Tralee and later Mosney and now I’m being sent to a centre in Dublin,” he says. “I’ve already started three different lives in Ireland – making new friends, getting involved in education and activities – and then I’m moved . . . You lose everything you have every time.”
Many of the asylum seekers are being transferred to Hatch Hall in Dublin. The Mosney residents are concerned about overcrowding there.
Vicki, a Nigerian asylum seeker who has been living in Mosney for almost five years, says at Hatch Hall she might have to share a bedroom with up to six people and a shower and toilet with up to 50 people. She also got a transfer letter this week.
More than 200 asylum seekers at Mosney have signed a petition against the transfers, arguing that the lack of notice given to people amounts to inhumane treatment.
They are also planning peaceful protests when the first of the buses arrive in Mosney next Tuesday to take the transferred residents to their new direct provision centre.
“We are planning a hunger strike to begin on Monday and a dignified peaceful protest on Tuesday,” says Ivo, who adds that the stress caused by transfers is causing people health problems.
“We won’t get on the buses on Tuesday. Mosney may not be perfect but at least we can call it home after living here for so long.”
NGOs say the agency’s decision to move asylum seekers at such short notice is unfair.
Rosanna Flynn of Residents Against Racism says the department should withdraw the transfer letters and allow the 150 people to stay on at Mosney. “Many of these people fled torture and persecution in their countries to seek a safe haven in Ireland,” she adds. “Yet when they get here they are shunted around different hostels, left for years without decisions being made on their applications and refused the possibility of work or education to better themselves. Surely they deserve a break now.”