Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he does not expect any protests against the five new accommodation centres for Ukrainian refugees, the locations of which were announced on Wednesday.
The centres will be located at Ballyogan Road, Dublin (392 beds), Stradbally, Co Laois (950 beds), Fernbank, Limerick (250 beds), Punchestown, Co Kildare (378 beds) and Gerald Griffin St, Cork (107 beds).
Speaking in Boston on Wednesday during this weeklong visit to the US, Mr Varadkar said: “Those protests have been more often connected to people seeking International Protection, rather than those coming from Ukraine.
“I think nobody is arguing with the fact that people are coming from Ukraine or coming from a country that is at war and facing hardship. There is, rightly or wrongly, a greater understanding as to why we need to assist Ukrainians than perhaps there is in the case for International Protection applicants, many of whom are refused protection.”
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Mr Varadkar was speaking at Boston Airport before his departure to Washington DC, where he will meet US president Joe Biden later this week.
Asked about the report in The Irish Times that as many as 200 men seeking international protection were sleeping in a makeshift camp in Dublin city centre, with some affected by scabies, Mr Varadkar said he was aware of the situation and had passed the camp on a number of occasions.
“I have seen it with my own eyes,” he said. “We are doing all that we can to find additional accommodation. That is a real struggle at the moment and we are prioritising women and families, and men with particular vulnerabilities,” he said.
Mr Varadkar argued that the context was that there had been a quadrupling in the number of people entering Ireland “irregularly” since 2019.
“I would say to people who are thinking of coming to Ireland irregularly that if they are coming from a safe country where they have accommodation, we can’t guarantee you accommodation in Ireland.
“Indeed it’s the same out here in America where they’re facing exactly the same problems. There are so many people on the move in the world. If you are passing through safe country, or if you have accommodation already in that country, whether it’s Britain or France or whichever transit country, we can’t guarantee accommodation any more and I just want to be honest about that,” he said.
Speaking later in Washington, Mr Varadkar said that it was not a case of dissuading people from seeking International Protection in Ireland. “If they are genuinely entitled to international protection, we don’t dissuade them. I think what is very evident in all of Europe and the US that it is not the pull factors but the push factors. We are in a very difficult situation now in Ireland at the moment where we can’t guarantee people accommodation if they arrive in Ireland yet the numbers are increasing. There is a myth out there that we are somehow inviting people out there to claim asylum in Ireland. That is not the case. It is the push factors that are causing it.”
Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar said that the prospects of a ceasefire in Gaza in the short-term looked increasingly unlikely but he would encourage President Biden to continue the efforts he is making to bring about a ceasefire on the ground.
Mr Varadkar said he also wanted to talk to Mr Biden about the “day after” the conflict comes to an end.
He said the plan of the Israeli government for Gaza the day after were “entirely unacceptable”.
“It’s an occupied territory. It’s not Israel’s right to decide what happens in Gaza. America and Europe have a role to play in building a Palestinian state,” he said.
Asked by reporters if this year’s traditional visit to the White House was difficult due to the US administration’s position on the Middle East conflict, Mr Varadkar said it presented a “new aspect” to the engagement.
He said: “Obviously, in Gaza its catastrophic and a great concern. I have to say, I believe President Biden’s heart is in the right place there.
“I know he’s working with Egypt, with Qatar, with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region, the Jordanians, to try and get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire,” Mr Varadkar said.
“So I’m keen to hear from him what his perspective is, but also to put across the very strong view of the Irish people that there should be an immediate ceasefire, so the hostages can be released, so that medicine and food that’s desperately needed can get into Gaza.
“But what we need beyond that is a pathway towards a just and lasting piece.”
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