Over 40 International Protection Applicants have gathered outside Leinster House after being evicted from temporary accommodation in Citywest this morning, as Fine Gael and Fianna Fail parliamentary parties met for the first time post-election.
The eviction occurred following an email sent to asylum seekers housed in Dublin Citywest Hotel, which stated that the International Protection Applicants must vacate the premises by 10am this morning.
The email was sent from International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) at 2pm yesterday, leaving less than a day’s notice, said two IP applicants. Access cards to the building were taken from the applicants just before 10am. No further directive was provided from IPAS, although the Citywest property remains vacant.
Some applicants went to the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street Lower, near Merrion Square. However, when they arrived, the IPO told the applicants that they could not offer alternative accommodation.
One applicant told Ireland Today that he has hypertension and diabetes, and is worried that he has no access to insulin. “I’m scared that I will not survive [sleeping] on the street,” he said. Although other sources have confirmed that the applicants can access insulin.
Meanwhile, another applicant awaiting asylum, from Bangladesh, said that he had been sleeping on the street previously, but received temporary accommodation six weeks ago. “I don’t know how to sleep on the street now,” he said. “There’s now more tension, and the weather is not good. We didn’t get enough sleep last night, we were too worried about the email [from IPAS],” he said.
International Protection Applicants often rely on volunteer services, such as those provided by the Department of Integration, where local volunteer Olivia Headon works. Today the group brought tents and blankets to the group outside Leinster House, in the hopes of providing them with some amount of warmth, a spokesperson said.
Ivana Bacik, a recently elected TD and leader of the Labour Party, said she is appealing to IPAS to organise the rehousing of the applicants. “Otherwise they are sleeping on the streets, in tents, and it is just not acceptable,” Bacik said. “It is hugely important that the government, that the IPAS, just keep working to secure alternative accommodation,” she said. “But the state have to step in.”