A GROUP OF people seeking asylum in Ireland have been detailing their experiences since arriving in Dublin and explaining why they’ve decided to seek shelter inside a vacant house in the city.
The move, they believe, offers them the best prospect of safety following a spate of attacks on tented and other makeshift accommodation by anti-migrant groups.
The attacks – which have occurred at various locations around Dublin – have included beatings by armed groups wielding knives, iron bars and bricks.
This group has been supported in their efforts to find a place to stay by a group of housing activists. Both the men seeking asylum and the housing activists said they were aware of other locations across the city being used for the same purpose.
The men – most of whom were from the Middle East and said they were displaced by the war on Gaza – spoke to The Journal at a disused council-owned property in Dublin in recent days.
One Palestinian man now staying in the house recalled five separate assaults – including twice while camping on the streets or along the Royal Canal and on one further occasion after camping in Phibsborough. Another attack took place while he was in staying in a vacant building.
Detailing one attack on a group he was camping with on the banks of the canal he said: ”They attacked us and we defended ourselves. One man was was stoned with a brick and they beat one Irish man – he had bruises on his face after. One attacked me with a scalpel, I hit him and blocked the blow.”
They sought refuge in a vacant building and received help from “Ukrainians and some Irish people” who brought clothes and food to them there until that site, too, came under attack in recent weeks
A social media post dated to early August shows an account seeking to recruit other far-right activists to attack the building.
“They were organised and attacked the house and beat us severely,” he said.
While some have been here longer, most of the men we spoke to have only come to Ireland in recent weeks. Although they are in the government’s international protection system, they are reluctant to enter International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) centres due to safety concerns about some of the locations.
The Journal was led to the property where the men were staying on a street off a busy road in the city.
The inhabitants of the house – a local authority-owned property that has lain empty in recent years – requested that its location be kept confidential.
“We worry that a petrol bomb will come in through the window,” one said.
The fact that local activists helped them find and adapt the property is looked upon by some of the men seeking refuge as an example of how people in Ireland “still want to help”.
A number of rooms contained wooden DIY ladders and beds to allow room for more people to stay in the house.
The men make sure to come and go quietly and not draw attention to the house.
A notice on the inside of the front door serves as a warning to the residents to be careful whenever they hear a knock from the outside.
“People trying to get in?,” the sheet of paper asks, before it adds:
Don’t let them in. They might make threats, sound reasonable, speak with authority. Don’t let them in.
Inside the house, the men were busy making coffee and cooking, and getting help from the activists with their documentation for discussions with the International Protection Office.
A volunteer translator is sometimes on site to assist, while on this visit a translation phone app allows people from different countries to communicate each other.
The majority of the asylum seekers speak Arabic and described how they were displaced by the war in Gaza.
One man, aged in his 50s, recalled how he and his family were “smuggled across the desert” in Egypt before, via plane, boat and car, eventually arriving in Dublin. He came to Ireland with his brother and his nephew from Gaza.
“We did not leave Palestine with our money and things we had but we left with only the clothes we were wearing,” he said.
While this man admitted he and his family were “surprised by the racists” in Dublin, he found the anti-migrant groups were still a “small group” nonetheless and that for the most part he had been welcomed and treated well in Ireland.
Asked why Ireland became their destination, a number said that country has a strong reputation among Palestinians. One man, in his 20s, said a friend of his came here, at the outbreak of war, and reported back that “the people were good, were nice”.
The local community activists helping the men are a loose and unofficial grouping – some of whom have been involved in providing aid to asylum seekers sleeping on the streets since a camp was burned on Sandwith Street in May of last year.
“It’s developed out of necessity to fill a gap in this emergency situation,” one woman said.
Another member of the group, a man in his late 30s, became emotional as he heard the men sitting around him in the living room describe the beatings they had received.
“People do forget that this isn’t just people without a home, this is people running from a war,” he said. “They’re literally not getting refuge, they’re getting more trauma on top of what they have. Here is relatively safe for now.”
Speaking through a translator, the nephew of the older Palestinian man said his family are “coming out of war” and simply wanted to be able to try to find work and pay their way. He’s hoping his family may be able to join him in Ireland.
“I want to live a decent life here, to work, to rely on myself and rent a house.”
Another man said he wanted the government to shorten the waiting time for people in international protection to obtain work permits for Ireland. Currently it is at six months but he and others in the house want to see it reduced to three months.
He remarked how Israel’s war on Gaza had turned it into a “barren land” and that he could not see the family returning anytime soon.
Speaking through a translation app, he said:
It is no longer a homeland. Buildings have collapsed, people have died of hunger. The one who has left Palestine has survived with his soul.
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