LAST UPDATE | 19 Mar

PEOPLE GATHERED OUTSIDE of the International Protection Office this evening to vent their frustration and anger over asylum seekers living in the Mount Street area of Dublin city being moved to a campsite on the grounds of an old nursing home nearby Saggart on Saturday morning.

Protesters, including members of United Against Racism, Social Rights Ireland and End Direct Provision have all called for Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman and the Government to take “emergency action” in order to house asylum seekers sleeping rough.

Several speakers questioned why the Minister is still in Japan on St Patrick’s Day Ministerial duties, after the weekends’ debacle.

“He’s big in Japan,” one joked, before adding, “What is he doing there?”

The minister has been on a trip to Japan from March 14 until today, where he is promoting Irish-Japanese relations.

Speaking from Japan on Sunday, O’Gorman denied asylum seekers were moved away from the city centre because of St Patrick’s Day. 

Volunteers today also shared their perspective on what happened on Saturday, as they were initially “pleased to see progress” when buses arrived to take asylum seekers to what they expected to be indoor accommodation, and were then later disappointed to learn that the men were being told to pitch tents outside at the site in Crooksling.

Protestors outside the Department of integration offices. pic.twitter.com/qOAv5cyag6

— Eimer McAuley (@eimer_mcauley) March 19, 2024

Labour’s Ivana Bacik and Aodhan O’Riordan were present at the protest, with the latter taking part as a crowd marched to the Department of Integration offices on Baggot Street.

Several asylum seekers told The Journal on Saturday night that they felt the conditions at the Crooksling site were “worse” and “colder” and that they did not understand where they were going when they got on the bus.

Some asylum seekers had their belongings thrown out when a company contracted by Dublin City Council came and destroyed and dumped the tents, before cleaning down the area, while most of the asylum seekers were away.

At least 25 asylum seekers have now returned to Mount Street and set up new tents there. 

Activist Siomha today said at the protest: “It’s disgusting to hear Leo Varadkar say things like, they have been moved out to this remote location, they’ve been moved there for health and safety reasons, in his words, that’s facilities that have showers and bathrooms – a questionable claim – is better than sleeping in a tent. Well wow, what a low bar.

“We must reject this false binary that says that it’s either asylum seekers sleeping here or sleeping in a tent out at the mountains, I mean if it is so much better sleeping out at the mountains, why doesn’t Leo Varadkar do it?”

Róisín McAleer from the volunteer group Social Rights Ireland also spoke at the protest about her efforts to try and help asylum seekers in light of the weekend’s events, and the preceding months of homelessness some have endured.

“[Asylum seekers] don’t need to be pushed in front of TV cameras or to have this sensationalised, it is cruel enough. We don’t need to dramatise this.

McAleer added that she understands why people are angry about homelessness in Ireland.
“People have a right to be angry, but nobody has a right to be a racist or a fascist,” she said.

Another activist with the group, Steven, said: “We, more than anybody else, wanted to see a resolution to this, but what we seem to be getting from the agencies of the Government responsible was just silence.”

“Six buses pulled up here on Saturday morning, the 200 or so men, many of them who were living here for months, were told they had a place to go now, and asked to get on the bus with a small rucksack, and so they did. They weren’t told where they were going.

“What transpired afterwards was the coldest of cold showers, because no sooner were these men bussed out of there, in swooped a team of contractors who cleansed the camp. 

“Our volunteers came down here to try and stop this vandalism… we told them many of these tents were donated by volunteers, organisations like Capuchin Day Centre, and by businesses,” Steven went on to say.

He said that one asylum seeker had gone to the Capuchin centre on Saturday morning to take a shower and returned to find that “everything he owned in the world was gone”.

The volunteer said that Social Rights Ireland was hoping to hand a letter in today to the Department of Integration’s office, to express their concern about what happened on Saturday, to ask questions, but people in the Department “locked the doors”.

Social Rights Ireland has claimed that the men who have chosen to stay at Crooksling are in “flimsy tents”, don’t have wifi access, and that the gates of the site are “padlocked” at 7pm. It has also claimed that food from volunteers have been “turned away” from the site.

The protesters marched to the offices of the Department of Integration this evening, where several more speeches were made, before the protest dispersed.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon in Dublin, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said he believes O’Gorman should complete his trip as planned due to the importance of Japan as a trading and political partner for Ireland.

He said that the Government wants to provide “secure” accommodation for asylum seekers.

With reporting from Jane Matthews.