Pledge to address issues at Athlone direct provision centre

Residents protest over living conditions and delays in processing applications

Life in Athlone direct provision centre for mother and baby.

The Department of Justice has pledged to continue to address issues raised by residents over their treatment at a direct provision centre in Athlone.

During protests at six different direct provision centres in recent weeks, asylum seekers have expressed growing frustration with both living conditions and delays in processing their applications. The latest protests took place this week at Birchwood House in Waterford.

Under the direct provision system, residents receive full board and accommodation and a weekly allowance of €19.10 a week. The average wait time for the applications to be processed is four years according to a June 2014 report by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA).

One of the first in a series of protests took place just over a month ago at the Athlone Accommodation Centre, a large mobile home park on the edge of the Co Westmeath town which is home to 257 people from asylum-seeking families.

READ MORE

Conditions at the centre continue to be a source of complaint by residents despite pledges from RIA to make changes.

Zeinab, a South African mother-of-three, was one of those who took part in the protests, which involved most residents refusing food for up to a week.

She, along with her husband and children, has been living under the direct provision system for seven years. Three of those years have been spent in a mobile home in Athlone.

Zeinab says it is “the worst centre” of those where she has lived and she spends most of her weekly allowance supplementing the provisions her family is given. “Everything for my kids I have to buy myself. I go into town on a Friday my whole €19 is going on stuff for house, cleaning stuff, cooking stuff.”

Tensions in Athlone escalated after the cancellation of an annual barbecue planned by management over the summer, at which visitors were due to be invited.

Residents said they objected to being “put on show”.

In a detailed letter to management, they also complained about the food, the staff, the conditions within the mobile homes, cleaning facilities and the school lunches provided for their children.

The RIA then asked the residents of Athlone for three weeks to introduce changes.

A bottle of detergent spray was given to each mobile home and brushes and mops were made available, say residents. The size of the children’s school lunches was amongst other improvements.

Zeinab, however, says there are still problems with the food and staff and that "things don't seem like they really much have changed". Her sentiments were repeated by other residents to The Irish Times.

In response, the Department of Justice - which has overall responsibility for the direct provision system - said RIA “will continue to meet with residents and work through the issues being raised”. They described the situation in Athlone as “an ongoing process”

The centre was in the news again earlier in the week after it emerged that RIA had vetoed an invitation for President Michael D Higgins to visit the centre on the basis of "logistics and safety".

A Government working group, meanwhile, is being established which is due to report back by the end of the year with proposals on how to address concerns over aspects of the direct provision system.

For Zeinab, however, life goes on in the mobile home with her children.

She and her husband haven’t worked for nearly seven years. The time in direct provision provision has been very hard on their relationship. If any small thing happens, “we end up fighting”. She says she feels “depressed” and “down”.