A record number of asylum seekers are currently awaiting an offer of accommodation, with some 2,577 international protection applicants now without suitable accommodation.
The chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council Nick Henderson has said “immediate steps” now need to be taken to ensure the basic needs of asylum seekers are met.
“In addition to the extension of day services, the Department [of Integration] has partnered with a homeless charity to conduct outreach to identified locations where applicants are rough sleeping. When available, the department makes offers of accommodation to eligible persons identified through this outreach,” a spokesman for the department said.
“We are, in parallel, working hard to find, develop and open suitable accommodation sites, so that we can offer appropriate and safe accommodation to all people applying for international protection. This is an ongoing challenge, and our teams are working to review offers of existing accommodation sites, identify vacancies within accommodations for people fleeing the war in Ukraine, and also trying to put in place and develop larger State-owned sites in locations around the country. This is in line with Government plans to address this current very challenging systemic problem.
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“While demand for accommodation for people applying for international protection continues to outstrip supply, the department, on behalf of the Government, is doing all it can to ensure that families and children have been accommodated. We have to date been able to make offers of accommodation to all women and families who need it
“From December 2023 to 29th August 2024, a total of 2,577 male international protection applicants have not been offered accommodation. During that time, approximately 50 per cent of male applicant arrivals were offered accommodation, either immediately on arrival (526), or during a subsequent triage (2,070). While not all IP applicants who are unaccommodated by the State are homeless – many have sourced accommodation themselves – the department has taken steps to provide supports to people who haven’t been accommodated.”
The Department of Integration currently has grant agreements in place with four homeless charities in Dublin to provide hot meals, showers, places to charge devices and rest to asylum seekers.
A Government source said the department also hopes to open the Thornton Hall site for accommodation in the coming weeks which will allow the triaging system to continue.
Nick Henderson of the Irish Refugee Council said, however, that the figures are concerning.
“We are deeply concerned by the number of international protection applicants without accommodation.
“The High Court stated in July that the support given to unaccommodated international protection applicants is inadequate and that an inability to access basic needs, particularly accommodation and hygiene, leaves people in a ‘deeply vulnerable and frightening position that undermines their human dignity’ and breaches EU law.
“The court expressed an expectation that the State would respond appropriately. It is now more than a month since the court’s decision and there has, as far as we can establish, been no formal government response or change in policy. As winter looms and far-right harassment of people sleeping rough continues, immediate steps must now be taken to ensure that international protection applicants’ basic needs are met.”
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