Homeless warning for arriving refugees as Government scrambles to create capacity

Urgent efforts are under way to rapidly reshuffle hotel capacity to create space for people seeking refuge here amid warnings of “large-scale homelessness”.

Government sources said hotels which had been due to provide beds to Ukrainians in the coming weeks are now being contacted to see if they can host international protection (IP) applicants coming from elsewhere, with a particularly acute shortage of accommodation for these people.

On Thursday, Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said the Citywest transit hub, where refugees are taken after arriving in Dublin, is likely to close due to weight of numbers in the coming days, with a third major accommodation crisis in prospect.

At that point some people arriving into the country may be given vouchers for food, and be effectively left by themselves until they are contacted with a place when it becomes available.

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Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said if Citywest closed “it is very likely there will be large-scale homelessness”.

“This has happened in the past, but the current situation is more serious as the closure and the lack of accommodation is projected until February,” he said. “Dublin homeless services, already stretched, may also come under considerable pressure.”

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A spokeswoman for the Dublin Region Homelessness Executive said it has “no remit for the provision of accommodation to (IP) applicants, and that homeless accommodation is at or near full capacity in the Dublin region”.

Even controversial tented accommodation, which is already seen as a fail-safe when the system is under pressure, remains under intense pressure, with no plans to add more capacity.

A spokesman for Mr O’Gorman said there were only around 12 spaces in the tents at Knockalisheen direct provision centre – with no capacity to extend it. “It is not currently possible to expand this due to operational constraints at the site,” the spokesman said, while tented options previously in Athlone and Tralee “will remain decommissioned and will not return to use”.

Consideration is also being given to sending up to 80 people to Kilbride Army Camp in Co Wicklow.

On Thursday, Mr O’Gorman told RTÉ: “We are entering a particularly difficult number of weeks in terms of the provision of new additional accommodation and particularly for international protection applicants. Particularly over the next number of weeks into about mid-February it is difficult to get a line of sight over enough accommodation to meet what we anticipate will be the number of arrivals.”

Mr O’Gorman said the Citywest facility would soon have to close its doors to new international protection arrivals seeking accommodation. It is understood this is expected to happen at the beginning of next week, although it will continue processing applications. He said this was likely to be longer in duration, stretching into a number of weeks.

There are currently about 73,000 migrants housed in Ireland, comprising 54,000 Ukrainian refugees and 19,000 international protection applicants. That compares to approximately 7,500 people before war broke out in Ukraine.

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It is understood the Government is now considering issuing a renewed appeal to those planning on travelling to Ireland to reconsider if they are in a safe place. A similar move was taken in mid-December, targeted at Ukrainians, but a renewed appeal if sanctioned could include asylum seekers. Contacting the latter group, given the diffuse nature of origins, would be more difficult.

Mr O’Gorman said that in mid-February they expect to see more capacity come online in hotels, converted buildings and other venues.

The UN Refugee Agency called for urgent Government action to avoid large numbers of asylum-seekers being left “homeless and destitute”.