Asylum-seekers ready to protest again if forced to move against will

Residents at the Mosney Accommodation Centre who last week called off a protest to prevent asylum-seekers being forced to move to Dublin have warned that they will protest again if the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) try to force people to move against their will. The RIA said yesterday (Tuesday) that transfers to downsize the numbers in Mosney were taking place but would not give details of operational matters. The agency has agreed a new contract with Mosney which involves a downsizing of its capacity from 800 to 650, but residents have indicated that there are not enough asylum-seekers willing to leave the centre voluntarily. On Tuesday of last week, a tense standoff at the centre ended, following an assurance that nobody would be forced onto buses, which were waiting to take them to Dublin. However, residents expressed fears this week that the RIA would force them to move, as there were not enough residents prepared to move voluntarily. They said they were also planning to protest against the huge delays in processing asylum applications, the lack of transparancy in the process and the way the delays are causing serious stress and health problems to residents of accommodation centres. They point out that asylum-seekers are isolated and have to right to study and say that the agency should close the bad centres, rather than good ones like Mosney. One of the residents, Dawi, an Afghan asylum-seeker, said there were fears among residents that their allowances would be cut if they did not co-operate with the move and they were waiting to see if this happens before the protest resumed. A spokesperson for the RIA said the agency had been engaged in the provision of asylum-seeker accommodation and supports services since 1999. "During this time, the RIA has opened, closed and reconfigured a number of accommodation centres. Transfers to effect the downsizing at Mosney are taking place. "No further details of the ongoing operational matter are available," she said. The RIA has indicated that the proposal to move 111 asylum-seekers to Dublin would mean a €1.8 million per annum saving to the State. The decision to move the asylum-seekers was taken as result of a 'value for money audit' undertaken by the Department of Justice. The residents are to be moved into facilities where vacancies have arisen as a result of declining numbers of asylum-seekers coming into the State.