Published: Wednesday, 7th July, 2010 5:00pm

Mosney refugees end their hunger strike

by Ann Casey

No forced removals, asylum-seekers assured

Asylum-seekers at Mosney protest at the Government's measures to move a large number of them to hostel accommodation in Dublin.
Pic by==: 97

Protesters at the Mosney Accommodation Centre, who had been on hunger strike to prevent asylum-seekers being forced to move, called off their fast yesterday (Tuesday) following an assurance that nobody would be forced onto the buses, which were waiting to take them to Dublin.

A tense situation at the east Meath accommodation centre on Tuesday morning - where 800 or so residents gathered to protest at proposals to move over 111 refugees to Hatch Hall in Dublin - was defused when the Irish Refugee Council informed residents that nobody would be forced to leave the centre.

Buses had been arriving at the east Meath centre from 10am on Tuesday morning to take 77 single men and 34 single women to the Hatch Street accommodation centre in the city.

The asylum-seekers, who were told last week that they would have to move to Dublin, were joined by most of the residents in Mosney in a gathering against the move and up to 800 people took part in protests at the centre on Monday and Tuesday morning.

As tensions mounted on Tuesday morning with the arrival of the buses, Sue Conlan of the Irish Refugee Council spoke to the Reception and Integration Agency and then informed the protesters that nobody would be forced to leave. The protesters then dispersed at around 1.30pm.

However, around 100 people will have to move as the owners of Mosney are to be paid for accommodating 650 people instead of the 800 at present, according to the Reception and Integration Agency. A spokesperson for the agency said that buses would go to the centre again today and tomorrow to take the asylum-seekers to Dublin, but nobody would be forced to get on the buses.

When asked what would happen if everyone concerned refused to get on the buses by the end of the week, she said she could not foresee what would happen and they would be "playing it by ear".

She said the proposal to move the 111 asylum-seekers to Hatch Hall would mean a €1.8 million per annum saving to the State.

Bahroz Wakachi, an Iranian Kurd who has been waiting seven years for his asylum application to be dealt with, was one of those who had been told he would have to move to Dublin. He joined the hunger strike on Monday morning and said, although the people being moved were unmarried, it would still break up families.

His girlfriend, whom he met in the Mosney centre, is pregnant and was not due to be moved.

"She needs me to be here with her. She is all alone in this country apart from me and, if I am moved, she won't have anyone," he said.

Mr Wakachi said he had been moved five times, but never by choice and he has been waiting seven years to have his application processed. He said there was great solidarity among the asylum-seekers in Mosney and virtually all the residents who were not threatened with a move had come out in support of these who were told they had to leave.

"We have also had a lot of support from local people and we are grateful to all the Irish people who have been supporting us," he said.

Rosanna Flynn of Residents Against Racism said there had been a wonderful atmosphere of solidarity in Mosney on Monday and Tuesday morning but she said anxiety levels heightened when the buses arrived to take the asylum-seekers away. "They were relieved when they were told nobody would be forced to get onto buses," she said.

Ms Flynn said that Mosney was the best-run accommodation centre in the country, and the most suitable, and it made no sense to move residents from there to less suitable facilities. She said negotiations with Mosney should be reopened and residents should be moved to it from other centres.

The Department of Justice said that talks about who would leave, and when, would now begin. The move was part of the drive to secure the best value for the €90m spent on the asylum process annually, a spokesman said.

He said no-one was being forced into Dublin as asylum-seekers also had the option of moving from accommodation centres to live with family and friends.

The decision to move the asylum-seekers was taken as result of a 'value for money audit' which the Department undertook.

They are to be moved into facilities where vacancies have arisen as a result of declining numbers of asylum-seekers coming into the State.

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