PoliticsAnalysis

Creaking refugee system prompting unwritten policy to discourage new arrivals

With nowhere for asylum seekers to go in Ireland except on the streets, many in Government are secretly hoping they’ll decide to go somewhere else

Asylum seekers leaving the grounds of the Magowna House hotel in Inch, Co Clare. Local residents have raised fire safety concerns about the venue. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Asylum seekers leaving the grounds of the Magowna House hotel in Inch, Co Clare. Local residents have raised fire safety concerns about the venue. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Pat Leahy's picture
Pat Leahy
Wed May 17 2023 - 01:00

Government efforts to accommodate people who are seeking international protection in Ireland are once again in focus as officials scramble to source places to house hundreds of people who have been told there is no place for them to go. Some of them are living in tents on the streets of Dublin – and a number of those people had their tents burned by far-right hoodlums last weekend. More asylum seekers continue to arrive every day.

There was a lively discussion – or argument, depending on who you talk to – at Cabinet on Tuesday on the issue. Roderic O’Gorman, the Green Minister with responsibility for refugees, has repeatedly appealed to his Cabinet colleagues for help in sourcing accommodation for refugees; he did so again on Tuesday.

The results of O’Gorman’s pleas have been mixed, to say the least. About 500 refugees – mostly young men – have been told when they present themselves to officials and claim asylum here that the State has nowhere to put them. This is especially sensitive for the Green Party, which pledged to end the system of direct provision. Now the party cannot provide even direct provision accommodation for asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, not only are asylum seekers living on the streets in tents, they are in fear of thugs repeating the attacks of last weekend and burning them out. And to cap it all, a High Court judge told the Minister two weeks ago, in a test case taken by an asylum seeker, that he had a legal obligation to provide accommodation. No wonder O’Gorman is agitated.

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The numbers tell the story. As the pandemic ended, arrivals rose sharply last year, rising by 600 per cent compared to the previous year. But even more significant was the sudden influx of refugees from Ukraine, with more than 70,000 arriving since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. They were immediately put into a different category to the people coming here seeking asylum. Under an EU decision, Ukrainian refugees were automatically granted leave to remain in Ireland, and they can also work, receive social welfare, etc. They continue to come to Ireland at a rate of about 80 a day.

The continuing arrivals present O’Gorman with the problem of how to hit a moving target. His officials are scrambling to find places to house the 500 asylum seekers who are currently without accommodation. The plans to send some of them to Co Clare have fallen foul of local protests, but there are three more centres being readied in Dublin.

[ Some asylum seekers decide to leave Clare after blockade at former hotel ]

But even if local assent is secured for these places, O’Gorman and his officials are faced with the reality that by the time they have found places for the 500, more asylum seekers will have arrived seeking the protection of the Irish State, which is obliged to help them, at least until their claim for asylum has been processed. Efforts to speed up that process have seen some success, and many are seeing an initial decision within three months. But an appeals process can take a lot longer. The system is creaking.

This reality is what has prompted a sort of unwritten and unspoken policy of the Government: to manage demand by discouraging people from coming here to seek asylum.

We welcome people who are in need of protection, the Government says. We will help them, it stresses. But we cannot offer them accommodation immediately, it concedes.

Some sources point to the fall-off in asylum seeker numbers in the early months of this year as evidence that word is going out that Ireland cannot cope with the current numbers. Perhaps they might conclude that they are better off going somewhere else. Though nobody will admit it, few in Government would complain if they did.