OVER 6,000 PEOPLE who have fled Ukraine have been accommodated in Ireland since February.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said that from 25 February to 25 March, 12,057 people have come to Ireland fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
Of those, 6,201 people have been placed in temporary accommodation by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).
The department said that IPAS will continue to “ramp up operations” to ensure that the increased demand can be met.
To date, 2,773 long-term hotel rooms have been contracted, with additional short-term room capacity also available. That number is increasing “at a steady pace”, the department said.
There have been 22,657 pledges of both shared and unshared accommodation made through the Irish Red Cross. 4,896 of these relate to vacant properties.
The Defence Forces have so far made contact with the owners of 1,112 vacant properties to arrange inspections. 820 owners have agreed to inspections, while 218 owners were not contactable and have to be contacted again. 74 owners have withdrawn properties.
Speaking on the crisis response, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said that Ireland “remains steadfast in our solidarity with the plight of people who have been displaced by the war in Ukraine”.
“Since the onset of this war, my Department and I have been focused on providing reception accommodation to those in need. The scale of response to this crisis has been unprecedented, and the Irish people have displayed an incredible level of generosity in their pledges of support and accommodation,” he said.
O’Gorman said that his officials are “continuously working” to source further accommodation and supports for the high numbers of people who continue to arrive every day. “On 24 March, of 862 arrivals, 633 sought accommodation, the highest number to date,” he said.
“The accommodation available through local authorities, religious organisations, State bodies and pledged accommodation is unlikely to meet the level of need should the higher estimated numbers of people arriving come to pass in the weeks ahead.
“As such, we have put a number of contingency options in place. These include the use of arenas and conference centres such as Millstreet and Citywest, as well as the use of Gormanstown Camp.”
O’Gorman said that although not the department’s first preference, it is a contingency that may soon be used, adding that every effort will continue to be made to ensure that use of this type of accommodation is temporary until more suitable accommodation becomes available.
The department is in advanced discussions with Airbnb and The Open Community regarding temporary accommodation being provided to those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine in Airbnb listings around Ireland. These discussions are expected to conclude in the next few days.
The department is also continuing to engage with religious orders to identify properties which may be suitable for use as accommodation for those fleeing Ukraine.
The head of Tusla said yesterday that children as young as 12 are arriving unaccompanied from Ukraine and being taken into care by Irish authorities.
Bernard Gloster said that the Child and Family Agency was caring for 14 Ukrainian children out of 95 youths across the system who are separated from their families and seeking international protection.
He said that Tusla had received 32 referrals of unaccompanied minors since the start of the war, 18 of whom were admitted to care. Four of those children were later discharged after being reunited with family or relatives.
Of the 14 children taken into care from Ukraine so far, one is in residential care, nine are with foster families and another four, who are around 17 and are heading towards adulthood, are in supported lodgings.
The UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said that nearly 3.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion a month ago, with half of the country’s children are now displaced.
In total, more than 10 million people – over a quarter of the population in regions under government control before the invasion – are now thought to have fled their homes, including nearly 6.5 million who are internally displaced.
UNHCR said that 2,173,944 people have crossed into Poland so far, but Polish border guards put the number even higher, at 2.2 million.
Some 563,519 Ukrainians have entered Romania, including a large number who have crossed over from Moldova. 374,059 Ukrainians have crossed into Moldova, while 330,877 Ukrainians have fled to Hungary.
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