FUNDRAISING WEBSITE GOFUNDME has removed a crowdfunding post which had been set up with the stated aim of sending Irish homeless people to Ukraine. 

The fundraiser, which had gathered over €1,000, was shut down after it was flagged dozens of times. 

The organiser had stated on the site that there were hundreds of hotel rooms available in Ukraine adding that it would “make sense” to place homeless Irish people there. 

Tomorrow marks six months since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. More than 6.5 million refugees have fled the conflict for elswhere in Europe since the war began on 24 February. 

Almost 9,000 members of the Ukrainian military have died, the head of the country’s armed forces said this week – as have thousands of civilians. 

When contacted by The Journal, GoFundMe confirmed it had removed the post and had since banned the user from ever hosting another fundraiser on the platform. 

A spokeswoman said:

“GoFundMe removed this fundraising page as it violates our terms of service. All donors were refunded and the organiser has been banned from the platform.”

The platform said that the page had violated its own terms and conditions with respect to hatred. 

This happens when “user content that reflects or promotes behaviour that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be an abuse of power or in support of hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism, terrorist financing or intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, disabilities or diseases.”

Several online fundraising pages have been removed from various online platforms over the last 18 months for breaking terms and conditions relating to hate speech.