A NUMBER OF homeless asylum seekers who were offered accommodation last night due to cold weather conditions have now returned to the tents they were sleeping in in Dublin City Centre, after being told they had to leave where they were staying.

Over 100 men have been sleeping rough in tents near to the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street in Dublin 2. They are some of the over 1,100 men who have come to Ireland seeking International Protection (IP) who have not been accommodated by Government. 

Following advocacy, media reports and outcry on social media yesterday the Department of Integration – which oversees accommodation for asylum seekers – said temporary emergency accommodation would be provided “due to the current extreme weather”.

According to volunteers who were present at the scene yesterday, men were taken to a number of different forms of accommodation on coaches and in taxis from Mount Street.

“Between six o’clock and 11 o’clock [yesterday evening] it was pure mayhem trying to get people in order,” said Róisín McAleer, a volunteer with the Social Rights Ireland community group.

The asylum seekers were being herded onto the coaches in lists, and they didn’t know where they were going either. But I suppose they just wanted to get out of the cold and the rain.

“It was mayhem. Absolute mayhem. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

People were taken to a number of different accommodation options across Dublin, including in Dundrum and a facility by Dublin Airport. 

Videos taken of the accommodation near Dublin Airport last night and seen by TheJournal show about 20 men in sleeping bags on the floor in a single room without beds. 

According to McAleer, these men were then told to leave the accommodation this morning at 8am. They have since returned to their tents.

About 50 men are now present again in the Mount Street area, according to people there. These include the men who stayed near Dublin Airport and those who remained in the area last night and did not take up offers of accommodation. 

TheJournal also heard the account of a man who said he had been taken by bus with others to the accommodation in Dundrum, but had been refused entry as his name was not on a list.

This man – who speaks little English – said he was then forced to make his way back to Mount Street walking. Another man, Pirsani, who had remained in his tent in Mount Street, also said that people had returned after being refused accommodation.

“Last night they took some of our guys to several different accommodation but some of them were refused, they come back to us last night. It was terrible actually,” he told TheJournal.

“People got some bus to accommodation, then after, in the middle of the night, they were refused in front of that accommodation, they had to come back to walk, you know?

They double check and they see their names are not on the list. Even the accommodation is very bad. Sometimes there is not bed, just empty room, you sleep on the floor. It’s terrible, shameful.

Speaking today to RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly said it was “her understanding” that anyone who was seeking emergency accommodation last night in the Mount Street area had gotten it.

“It’s my understanding that they did. It’s my understanding that anyone who was seeking accommodation last night at Mount Street did get emergency accommodation,” she said.

I think that’s really important that there’s always an amount of emergency accommodation for those who are most vulnerable.

It is set to be another cold night in Dublin, with temperatures reaching freezing, according to Met Éireann.

TheJournal.ie has contacted the Department of Integration for comment in relation to whether further offers of accommodation will be made and as to whether people had been turned away from accommodation last night. No response was received at the time of publication.