A group of female asylum-seekers who claimed to have suffered sexual harassment and racist abuse at a Co Galway hotel have been offered alternative accommodation.
The Reception and Integration Agency told The Irish Times yesterday that the women were being given an option to move, and a check was being carried out on the establishment in Glenamaddy.
The women - several are pregnant and several have newborn infants - had been moved to Glenamaddy from Balseskin reception centre in north Dublin several weeks ago after an outbreak of chickenpox.
However, local gardaí initiated an investigation when the women reported that they had been abused and harassed on the premises, which has a restaurant and a bar.
Following concerns expressed by the Irish Refugee Council, the Reception and Integration Agency sent an official to Glenamaddy last week.
This week it informed Tuam Community Development Project, which has been working with the women, that an alternative location would be provided.
A spokesman for the agency told The Irish Times that its hands had been tied by the 28-day quarantine imposed on the women when they had been exposed to chickenpox at Balseskin.
Ms Chelo Alfonso, women's support worker at Tuam Community Development Project, said that two of the women who are pregnant and two who have newborn children were being moved.
All the women, most of African nationality, would be transferred. "The women are extremely relieved that they are going to be transferred to places of safety, where their human rights and integrity, and those of their infants may be respected," Ms Alfonso said.
An agency spokesman said he could not comment on the continued use of the hotel, as this would be decided on the basis of the checks. The contract had been short-term and related to the chickenpox outbreak, he said.
The Glenamaddy hotel had been used as an asylum centre several years ago, and the agency said that there had been no complaints then.
The Irish Refugee Council has said that only suitable centres with appropriate standards and accommodation should be used to accommodate asylum-seekers. Long-term integration rather than exclusion should be facilitated.
A recent report by the Public Health Alliance noted the negative impact of direct provision on the health of pregnant women and on the diet of children, the council said.
