A NUMBER OF organisations have raised concerns about the €75 increase in the weekly payment being given to International Protection Applicants without accommodation, with one advocacy group deeming the payment “an insult”.
The Department of Integration announced on Monday that the State had run out of accommodation for international protection applicants after a number of warnings from Minister Roderic O’Gorman that the supply was about to run out.
Yesterday, the Minister confirmed that the weekly payment of €38.50 given to IP Applicants who have not been offered accommodation will increase by €75, bringing the total paid to €113.80 per week
It is understood the additional amount is being given to “assist an applicant in living independently while the State cannot provide accommodation”.
But Lucky Khambule, the co-founder of the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), told The Journal that asylum seekers with nowhere to stay cannot realistically live on that amount from day-to-day.
“When you look at €75 in a week, when you don’t have a place to stay, anything to eat, how far will that take you? We have people that don’t have anywhere to go,” he said.
“Yesterday, we had to send people to local Dublin hostels. If they get a bed there you are looking at about €40 to €50 per night for a bed.”
He questioned what discussions the Government had before agreeing to increase the payment by €75.
“I don’t know what they were thinking to come up with that amount, and how they thought that a person would be able to survive in the streets for that long because they don’t even know how long will people will be in the streets before they can provide accommodation.
“So we really object to that amount for people without accommodation. It should be more.”
Sinéad Gibney, the chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), told The Journal that the commission is “very concerned” about whether the payment will meet the basic needs of anybody coming to Ireland seeking international protection.
“[The payment] is nowhere near what we would see people getting as supplementary welfare allowance and those people who are in a similar situation, for example, where it’s quite clear that they don’t have enough means to meet their basic needs,” Gibney said.
It’s just simply not enough in terms of covering accommodation, as well as feeding oneself and making yourself safe and secure. That’s our main concern.
The Department of Integration has said Ireland has a legal obligation to provide material reception conditions for International Protection applicants, including housing, food and a daily expenses allowance.
In a statement yesterday, it said: “In circumstances where the State temporarily runs out of accommodation, the law allows the minister to provide such reception conditions in an alternative manner provided it is for as short a period as possible.”
All unaccommodated IP applicants are being provided with the contact details for IPAS and with information on accessing health and other public services in Ireland.
A spokesperson for the department said yesterday that those who present to IPAS will be directed to drop-in centres where they can avail of amenities such as showers, hot meals and laundry services.
Drop-in services will also “provide tents and sleeping bags, where required”.
The government maintains there is a precedence of EU Member States offering a financial payment when accommodation is temporarily exhausted.
The Department said that total weekly payments for IP applicants not in State accommodation range from €37.10 per week in Poland, €46.90 in Romania, €83.30 in Cyprus and €99.40 in France.
Khambule said he had spoken to some of the International Protection Applicants who have arrived in the country since Monday’s announcement that the State had run out of accommodation.
“The sad thing is that these guys are new in the country. They have no idea where they are and when they are told ‘we don’t have accommodation for you’, it’s like the world is shutting in front of their eyes and they have nowhere to go. It’s really, really sad.”
He said the Government should have had more accommodation prepared for the winter months.
“We saw this in May and June this year, and we’ve been dealing with the people who were stranded at that time in huge numbers. Now with the weather conditions the way they are, you can’t say that you don’t have a place for people,” he said.
“The Government should be able to do the minimum to get a basic place where people can be able to stay.
“The EU directive, which Ireland signed up to, is clear in terms of providing basic minimum conditions for people. That is accommodation. They’ve signed that, so they are in breach of that EU directive.”
If the State fails to provide accommodation for International Protection Applicants, it would be in breach of the European Communities (Reception Conditions) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 230/2018) and the related European Directive.
In April, the High Court ruled, in a judicial review case concerning the human rights of people arriving in the State seeking International Protection, that “failure to provide International Protection applicants with material reception conditions was unlawful, and that it amounted to a breach of the applicant’s right to dignity under the Charter of Fundamental Rights”.
IHRED previously wrote to Minister O’Gorman in January to state that Ireland was in clear breach of its international obligations regarding newly arrived International Protection Applicants.
Gibney said IHREC will be monitoring the situation “very closely” over the coming weeks.
“Everybody has a right under international law to seek international protection in another country and they have a right, while their claim is being processed, to have their basic needs met, and that’s what we’re seeing failing here,” she said.
“Besides immigration policy of the State, our job as a human rights institution is to hold the State to account on how these people are being treated while their claim is being processed and that’s what we have an issue with right now.
“The expectation that somebody who comes here seeking international protection and in this weather and in this anti-immigrant climate that we’re currently in, is being put on the streets is really problematic.”
Gibney also said that IHREC is “very concerned” for the safety of asylum seekers who may have to sleep on the street following the violence seen during the riots in Dublin last month, and earlier this year, when tents of asylum seekers staying outside the International Protection Office (IPO) were set on fire.
“Their safety is is really at risk,” she said. “People are being given cash and vouchers, so they would be vulnerable from that perspective, and even their sleeping bags and tents that they’re being issued with would be things that people will go for.
“Certainly in the current climate of anti-immigrant sentiments on display, I think it’s a heightened risk right now.”
Khambule shared these concerns, saying that those who arrive here “don’t know who to talk to” and are unaware of the far right, which can put them at risk.
“It’s putting them under huge, huge pressure to be exposed to those people. They can be injured, they can be beaten. Anything can happen.
This is the country of a thousand welcomes and this is the welcome that we are giving to people who are new in the country.
In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for the Irish Refugee Council said: “We believe that the streets are fundamentally unsafe for protection applicants and a payment won’t change this. Neither do we think a payment of €75 is sufficient to meet people’s basic needs when unaccommodated.
“If people living in Direct Provision who receive DEA as a supplementary income are struggling to meet their basic needs, people on the street will still struggle more on this payment,” the spokesperson said.
“In our recommendations to Government, in the spring and those sent this week, we recommend that people be given at least the social welfare allowance amount and ideally, accommodation capacity be created with the help of other government departments.”
Gibney said the Government has to find an immediate solution to the accommodation shortage.
“We appreciate that in these circumstances there might need to be accommodation provided that isn’t quite up to standard, but anything is better than being on the streets right now.”
She also called for better long-term planning and for a stronger political leadership to speak out against anti-immigrant sentiment.
“We need our political leaders to talk about the benefit of inward migration that we experience, and that is through international protection, refugee programmes and through economic migration.
“As a country, we need to look at immigration more positively and move away from, certainly, a State response that seems to be characterised by emergency and crisis and often burden. That’s not helping.”
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