Paul Hopkins: Refugees: we may need an ‘Ireland full-up’ sign
As I write, protesters are still outside a hotel in Co Tipperary demonstrating against plans to house international protection applicants. The Department of Integration said 160 beds – some now occupied – were being provided in Racket Hall, in Roscrea, the town's only hotel. Most residents claim their protest is not about 'racism' but rather about lack of consultation and lack of amenities. Roscrea, for example, has only one dentist.
In Lanesboro, Co. Longford, the owner of a former convent designated to house 85 Ukrainians has pulled out following an attempted arson attack on the premises. That said, most of the 700 protests the past year have been peaceful, but with 16 cases of attempted arson recorded.
Meanwhile, Mayo councillors have passed a motion calling on council staff to cease co-operation with the Department of Integration over the housing of asylum- seekers. Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien has appealed to other councillors not to follow suit.
And John Lannon, CEO of Doras – the body that protects the rights of people from a immigrant backgrounds – has warned public representatives that “fearmongering and excluding people from communities” is not going to help their towns get better services.
The Government, for their part, are to allegedly acquire up to six new accommodation centres — with beds for 3,600 people — and audit existing buildings being used for refugees, as part of efforts to deal with the crisis. The country's 200 current accommodation centres, housing 26,000, have been contracted on a capacity basis rather than for individual occupancy. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says there is an “issue” around whether existing centres are being fully used. He has asked Government departments to come up with possible 'help' across the 10 regions which have taken in the most migrants. GPs may receive more staff, such as locums. Schools could be in line for extra English language teachers, as well as co-ordinators tasked with supporting schools to meet the needs of immigrant children. The provision of additional reserve Gardaí is also on the table as Garda numbers approach 15,000.
Are they flying these recruits back from Dubai and Australia? Seriously?
Meanwhile, Meath's Independent Senator Sharon Keogan has reiterated her call to make the job of Immigration Consultant a regulated profession, while Emily Hogan from the Irish Human Rights and Equality
Commission has labelled Direct Provision “a severe violation of human rights”.
Direct Provision is a considerable concern for a UN committee which concludes that our State “violated a number of rights of asylum seekers”, with the rider that those seeking refuge continue to live in inadequate and poor communal accommodation for extensive periods of time, and are prevented from working. And now, new Ukrainian refugees have 90 days to find their own place to dwell and their welfare is being dramatically cut.
Meanwhile, we have 14,000 Irish people homeless, among them 4,000 children. Nearly a quarter of a million young people in third level education are seeing the “worst student accommodation crisis ever” with student unions saying the Government was “warned it was coming but ignored it”.
While we are, as a society, noted for our welcoming nature, every so often, and more often of late, we find ourselves badly wanting when it comes to being the land of Cead Mile Failte. Racism is a relatively minor reality here.
“Ireland's immigration policy is based on rules, and they are enforced,” according to the Taoiseach. He is wrong to claim the rules are enforced. A total of 3,285 people arrived in Dublin Airport without a valid identity document in 2023, 4,968 in 2022. It is an offence under the Immigration Act 2004 for a non-national over 16 (except those from the UK) to land in the State without a valid travel document. Former Justice Minister Michael McDowell has said that many, justifiably denied international protection, slip under the radar and remain here.
All refugees dream of finding work, of finding a country that will offer them an opportunity to pay their way. Migrants searching for safe havens and opportunities benefit their host nations’ economies within five years of arrival, suggests an analysis of 30 years of data from 15 countries in Western Europe, including Ireland. The study, in Science Advances, finds that soon after a spike in migration, the overall sustainability of the country’s economy improves, contradicting the notion that refugees place an excessive financial burden on a country.
But accommodation – the housing crisis – is the issue here. We just may well have overstretched ourselves.
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