Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Irish response to the plight of refugees fleeing that cruel and unnecessary war has been defined by compassion and a remarkable generosity of spirit. Politicians, State organisations, NGOs and the Irish public rolled up their collective sleeves to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, finding and then funding accommodation in the middle of a housing crisis, finding school places for tens of thousands of children and working together to quickly integrate Ukrainians into Irish society.
Many Irish people welcomed Ukrainians into their homes and the integration of Ukrainian children into our education system has been so successful that it is now difficult to find an Irish child who does not have a Ukrainian schoolfriend. Despite very considerable language barriers, and the challenge of holding down a job while minding children, 32,000 Ukrainians have found employment.
Given that our efforts to integrate Ukrainians in what were very tough circumstances have been largely successful, it is difficult to understand why the State is engaged in a campaign of mass disintegration of Ukrainian refugees.
With no political debate and with almost no engagement with the organisations working with Ukrainian refugees, the State has closed over 125 accommodation centres for Ukrainian refugees, uprooting more than 5,000 people and moving them – often with only two days’ notice – to alternative accommodation not of their choosing in a completely different part of Ireland.
Waddilove and Dickson aiming to make a big splash in Marseille
Michael McDowell: Seanad is an elitist institution chosen by graduates and stuffed with political wannabes
Darragh Ó Sé: Kerry’s style of play saps their energy. No wonder they looked gassed in extra-time
How many times does Ireland have to be warned about shadow banking?
No allowance is given for children who have school places at their current accommodation. None is given to mothers who are managing to hold down a job locally. The campaign is an ongoing one. Almost every day a centre is closed down and Ukrainian refugees are forced to once again uproot themselves against their will and try to start a new life from scratch in a new location.
This has caused great upset – not only to the thousands who have been unnecessarily uprooted and the many more who do not know if and when they will be subject to the same 48-hour upheaval – but also to the Irish communities who have worked hard and so successfully to integrate refugees.
In a briefing note to Irish politicians, the Department of Integration suggested that this mass disintegration campaign was in part due to lower demand for accommodation from Ukrainians and in part due to a lack of compliance in the accommodation being closed down. This guidance seems to me to be disingenuous at best.
The demand for the accommodation being closed is evident by the very integration of those availing of it. In overall terms, despite institutional Ireland now being one of the least welcoming places in Europe, there are still about 29 Ukrainian refugees arriving every day.
The department has told politicians that the number arriving each week has reduced, glossing over the fact that the overall number is still increasing.
The situation is even more critical for newly arrived Ukrainian refugees. Since March of this year, Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland have been told they can avail of Government accommodation for only 90 days, after which they will be out on the street with no access to State homeless services.
The 90-day accommodation term began to expire for newly arrived Ukrainian refugees in recent weeks and, although NGOs have worked hard to ensure none have so far been forced out on the streets, those who work with Ukrainians agree that it is only a matter of time.
The NGOs working with Ukrainians, including the organisation I work with, are universally appalled. We can’t believe the Ireland which was so welcoming of Ukrainian refugees is now willing to put women and children out on the street.
When earlier this year the Government decided to reduce the welfare payment for Ukrainians in State accommodation from €232 a week to €39, it justified the move by saying it was important not to have a two-tier refugee system, that Ukrainians should be treated in the same way as other refugees. It was a particularly Orwellian framing of a move that in fact created a two-tier system. Refugees in State accommodation from every country in the world except Ukraine were and are entitled to a welfare payment of €232 a week.
Asylum seekers, on the other hand – those of undetermined status – received and continue to receive only €39 a week, an amount which every organisation working with those seeking asylum acknowledges to be too low.
It is difficult to see why Ukrainian refugees of confirmed status were compared to asylum seekers, but if we accept this as a valid benchmark, why are asylum seekers from every country in the world given State accommodation for an indeterminate period while only Ukrainians fleeing a known war are given a 90-day limit?
Obviously it is not that there is no accommodation available. We have so much accommodation available that we have been able to close more than 125 centres, even though we had to uproot thousands of mainly women and children to do it. Why is the Government at every turn discriminating against Ukrainian refugees? Why are we failing to accommodate newly arrived Ukrainian refugees when there is plenty of accommodation available? Why is this happening with no public debate?
Taoiseach Simon Harris recently emphasised the need to deal with the migration issue with “common sense and compassion”. Fine words, but the current national disintegration campaign for established Ukrainian refugees lacks any semblance of common sense. Forcing newly arrived Ukrainian refugees on to the street is a far cry from what most Irish people would define as compassion.
Tom McEnaney is the founder of Effective Aid Ukraine, an Irish- and Ukrainian-registered charity that has helped more than 1,200 Ukrainian refugees to relocate to Ireland
- Listen to our Inside Politics Podcast for the latest analysis and chat
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date