After a brief hiatus, the ugly scenes which took place in the north Dublin suburb of Coolock this week have brought tensions over refugee accommodation back once more to centre stage. The location of the disturbances, a vacant factory off the Malahide Road earmarked to house temporary protection applicants, had already been the scene of ongoing protests for several months. These escalated on Monday when the authorities moved in to clear the protesters’ camp and begin preparing the site for its new purpose. The unacceptable violence which ensued led to the deployment of 200 gardaí and running clashes across the surrounding area. Fireworks, bottles and canisters were thrown as Public Order units were deployed to quell the disturbances.
The flare-up has raised familiar questions about policy and strategy as State agencies struggle to cope with the steep rise in applications for temporary protection. Some local political representatives in Coolock claim inadequate local consultation contributed to the stand-off, although it is far from clear whether such consultation would have halted the initial protests, much less this week’s violence.
What is clear is that local concerns are being inflamed by misinformation and disinformation spread on social media platforms, and that far-right agitators are exploiting the situation with some success. There is work to be done in confronting and correcting these malign forces, as well as in addressing the widespread perception that less well-off areas are taking a disproportionate amount of new refugee accommodation centres.
The State has a legal and moral obligation to provide shelter for those who arrive on its shores seeking protection – an obligation it is currently failing to meet. It is also empowered to make decisions on where to locate that accommodation. The Government has reportedly identified more than 30 large buildings which it may use for that purpose. It would be naïve to think that it will not face similar scenes at some of those locations should it proceed with those plans.
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The strain which the refugee accommodation crisis is putting on the apparatus of the State was visible this week in the disagreement between the Garda Representative Association and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee over whether the security response in Coolock was adequate or whether gardaí were put at risk. It could be seen too in suggestions from within Government that certain agencies – in particular the Office of Public Works – have failed to meet their responsibilities in this area. Unfortunately, the response to the crisis still appears more fragmented than it should be, with a whole of Government approach long overdue on a range of issues from processing applications to building new centres. Despite calls from some quarters for short-term solutions, this will remain a daunting challenge for this Government and its successors.