LAST UPDATE | 18 Dec 2022
A GROUP OF Ukrainians staying in Dundalk in Co Louth has been told they will be transferred to other counties tomorrow morning.
The group of around 50 people, including 19 children, were informed at an emergency meeting on Friday that they would be transferred from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk to several other areas, including Tralee in Co Kerry, Limerick and Galway.
Copies of the letters have been circulating on social media. Emily Woodcock, a volunteer in Dundalk who has been assisting Ukrainians there since March, confirmed to The Journal that the group was told they would be separated and moved.
Woodcock said many of the group have jobs in the area, and the children have enrolled in local schools.
She said that efforts were being made to have Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman intervene, “but at the moment, the bus is coming at nine o’clock in the morning.”
Tomorrow is St Nicholas Day in Ukraine, when children receive presents.
One Ukrainian woman who is living in the hotel, who asked not to be named, told The Journal that all Ukrainians living there had previously been assured that they would be able to stay until December 2023.
She said that she was not being transferred, but was now worried that she may have to move in the future.
“Everybody thought that we could stay for another year so nobody really looked into accommodation.”
The Taoiseach acknowledged it is “very traumatic” for refugees to be moved to alternative accommodation at such short notice.
Leo Varadkar said people should be given as much notice as possible if they need to be moved.
On his first day back in the role of Taoiseach, Varadkar attended a Christmas lunch for about 100 Ukrainian men, women and children organised by the Irish Red Cross and promoter Harry Crosbie at Dublin’s Vicar Street.
Asked what he will do to help refugees who are being asked to move at short notice, Varadkar said he would look into the matter.
“My feeling is that if people have to be moved, and sometimes they do, it’s important to give them as much notice as possible because particularly if families and children have to move schools, that can be very traumatic, so I will make inquiries about it.
“There might not be a way around it. But as a basic principle, I think we should try to give people as much notice as possible if they need to move.”
Asked about reports of a Ukrainian family being split up due to accommodation issues, Varadkar said it was “not desirable at all” and he would make contact with the Children’s Minister about the matter.
“It’s not good that families are ever separated, or that people are asked to move from one place to another with short notice. And that’s true all year round. It’s particularly true in Christmas week for obvious reasons,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Integration said that it does not comment on individual cases, but noted that “in almost all circumstances, arrivals from Ukraine are transferred from hotels only where contracts are coming to an end or where they have been in accommodation reserved for international protection applicants.
“In some instances, refugees had been placed temporarily in accommodation reserved for international protection applicants who urgently need this accommodation.
“The State is currently in an emergency response to the ongoing crisis and transfers are necessary to ensure that applicants for international protection and all those fleeing here from Ukraine can be accommodated.
“In seeking to address immediate accommodation needs, safety and security are the paramount considerations.”
In October, a group of Ukrainian refugees were due to be moved from Killarney in Co Kerry to Westport in Co Mayo, but after outcry from local residents, the decision was scrapped.
Additional reporting by PA
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