Migrants in Clare: ‘Here is much better than Citywest. For 2½ months, I was sleeping on a chair’

Ziad, a 26-year-old Algerian, says he hopes the situation at Magowna House at Inch outside Ennis “gets sorted and the blockade lifted”.

Speaking at the entrance to Magowna House on Tuesday evening, he said the accommodation at Magowna House was “much better than Citywest”.

Ziad was one of 33 International Protection (IP) applicants bussed to Inch shortly after 6.30pm on Monday evening. He had spent about five months at Citywest, Dublin and was told that he was being transferred.

“I was glad to get out – there were too many people there. It was very packed. They didn’t tell us where we were going. We got on the bus not knowing where we were going,” he said.

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On arrival, Ziad said there were a number of locals protesting peacefully. “They were not very welcoming. I have nothing against them and I agree with them that they should have been consulted,” he said.

Ziad was speaking to locals at the entrance on Tuesday and he said: “This place is not suitable for us. I didn’t like being brought to a rural area. There is nothing for us here.”

Ziad said he was looking forward to working here in Ireland – “I can do all kinds of jobs.”

Another IP applicant, Suldan (24) from Afghanistan, said, “I am feeling safe, there is good food, a good environment, good people. The problem for us is transport.

“I don’t want to speak to locals at the moment because some don’t like asylum seekers,” he said. “Here is much better than Citywest. For 2½ months, I was sleeping on a chair.”

Down a side road, 1km away, locals were maintaining their “blockade” to Magowna House with four bollards placed across the road off the main road. One of the locals, John O’Malley, said the blockade would remain there “as long as it takes – 24/7″.

“It will remain here until we get answers about how many are coming, when they are coming and answers about fire certs and the sewerage system,” he said. “We are getting a massive response from people. This is not anti-refugee. It is about the complete lack of consultation with local people.

“There isn’t a footpath or a public light within two or three miles. There is nothing for them. If they have to go to the shop, walking on a busy road here, they will get killed. They went over the road today and they caused mayhem.

“This is nothing against refugees. We have no problem with refugees,” he added.

Locals were, on Tuesday evening, continuing to block access to Magowna House in order to prevent further IP applicants being moved to the site. Gardaí were at the site and a small number of IP applicants had left the property, indicating plans to return to Citywest.

Earlier, council officials sought to reassure the local community about the arrival of 34 male IP applicants at Magowna House on Monday evening where there is capacity for 69 IP applicants.

At a meeting with local residents at Clare County Council’s chamber on Tuesday morning, council chief executive Pat Dowling told residents, “I wouldn’t like any message to go out from here today that the local community is in danger or at risk.

“I have seen no evidence of that and would not like it to be promoted that the local community is in danger,” he said.

In response to Mr Dowling’s remarks, one local man said “we are entitled to our fears”.

About 40 locals attended the hastily organised meeting attended by local TDs, Cathal Crowe (Fianna Fáil), Michael McNamara (Independent) and members of Clare County Council, Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) and Cllr Pat Daly (FF).

At the meeting chaired by Mr McNamara, Mr Dowling made his comments in response to concerns expressed by one woman who said local people had received no information on the transfer.

She asked the meeting: “Are we just the garbage in the street?… We are being dictated to, we are being told ‘shut up and put up’. We are going to be portrayed as being the most awful bunch of lunatics for even questioning what is going on.”

Another woman told the meeting “we are very far from racist. We are a very welcoming community. It is extremely upsetting what is happening. I should be at work today. It is not fair on them and it is not fair on us.”

Mr Crowe told the meeting that “the ugly Dublin protests have very much coloured how the department see this”.

He said the general approach by “some Civil Service guru” is the best thing to do is give no information to the community, give last minute information to the public representatives “and by playing the game that way, ‘we will line up the accommodation and pass over the keys and fill the beds’”.

Mr Crowe said with such an approach, there was very little consideration for the men “and is setting up both sides for failure”.

Mr Dowling told local residents that the council had no prior knowledge of the IP applicants’ arrival on Monday evening. He added the council would work with the agencies “to ensure that these men are not left loitering in that facility for weeks and months at end without services being provided”.