A TENANTS’ UNION has called on the International Protection Accomodation Services (IPAS) to meet with them to discuss evictions from Direct Provision centres around the country.

The Community Action Tenants Union’s (CATU) Munster Organiser Michael Sheehan said that despite repeated attempts to sit down with IPAS, they have so far been unsuccesful.

CATU are currently supporting a number of families facing eviction from centres in Waterford, Cork, and Galway.

According to Sheehan the issue is a national one, with approximately 3,000 people issues letters informing them that they would be evicted across two dates, 18 July and 26 July

“These families are being told to relocate to Dublin, where we’ve all seen the number of asylum seekers sleeping on the streets, and this is what’s in store for for our members if the evictions go ahead,” he said on Newstalk.

Grace, a resident of the centre in Tramore, Waterford, said that they have been provided with no information about where they could end up.

“We could end up on the other side of the country, we could end up living in tents, on the streets, we just don’t know. The letters we were provided didn’t say where we would end up,” she said.

The lack of information provided to residents facing eviction by IPAS hasn’t just affected the residents in Tramore.

In Cork, at the Direct Provision Centre on the Kinsale Road, some residents were issued letters with an eviction date of 5 July. However, there was no information on where the emergency accommodation they were being moved to would be.

One resident said that when she asked the staff in her centre, she was told that it would be confirmed at a later date.

“So not only did we not know, but they didn’t know either,” she said.

Ahead of the first round of evictions on 4 July, ActionAid Ireland called on Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman to exempt lone parents from any evictions. In advance of the second round, they have renewed this call.

In a statement, ActionAid Ireland CEO Karol Balfe said, “It takes a huge amount of work for a person to integrate. To transfer someone with status and to ask them to start again is bad policy. It increases levels of homelessness, undermines integration and adds more barriers to finding private accommodation.”