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Dublin Live

National

Dan Grennan

East Wall office block refugees 'cried for four days' when they arrived

Dublin Live East Wall (Facility) Refugee

Refugees living in a former ESB office block have told Dublin Live of the "nightmare" their lives have become since they moved in.

The single woman and mother could not stop crying for four days straight when they were first moved in as they couldn't accept the horror they were landed in. The East Wall refugee centre has been the focus of a controversial protest which has resulted in the Port Tunnel and other major arteries in the city centre being blocked off.

The East Wall Committee are calling for the centre to be shut down because it is "intolerable" and "inappropriate". However, local residents previously told Dublin Live they were "embarrassed" by the protest which many claim has been infiltrated by far right elements.

The refugees who spoke to Dublin Live on condition of anonymity saw new rooms with even more beds in them being prepared for new arrivals last week. They said the centre could not take any more people as it was already "overcrowded".

The single woman said: "It's like a nightmare. There are a lot of people and you don't have privacy. You can't focus on your life. We can't relax in the building so we spend a lot of time outside."

The women also fear a fire starting in the building. "If there is a fire, all of us will die", they added.

The two women are living in different rooms which are both the same - around 250cm by 250cm. They estimate the rooms with seven beds in them to be 350cm by 400cm and Dublin Live reported that as many as 100 new refugees were added to the centre last week.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Integration confirmed there are now 364 residents in the centre which is "mainly comprised of families, along with couples and single females and males". She added that the new 364 figure is within the capacity of the facility.

They showed Dublin Live pictures of a cramped room in which the floor was barely visible due to the amount of beds and said: "For this place, they are going to put seven people."

"There is no privacy. We are sharing bathrooms, showers and there is just two washing machines and one dryer for 200 people."

The mother added: "My friend wakes up at 4am to wash her clothes. We can't wash anything because there is no place and no time. You have to be in a queue outside the building and it is very cold."

The communal showers are not hot for long and are located outside the building as well and residents have to brave the cold to get to them. The mother said: "We take a shower in the cold water. The first five minutes is hot but then suddenly it is cold."

Single men, families, and single women are all housed on different floors in the building. There is security at the office block who keep everyone on the right floor during the day but the single women feel unsafe.

The single female refugee said: "The problem is, it is not safe. It is not safe at all."

"Me and my roommate are single women. The first day we came to the centre we were going to go to our room but there was three men in there and they closed the door in front of our faces."

"We found another room without a lock in it but we didn't sleep all night because we were scared". She is now, thankfully, in a room with a lock in the door.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Integration said: "The health and wellbeing of all people who avail of accommodation provided by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) is of the highest priority to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Residents are encouraged to engage with IPAS if they are unhappy with any aspect of their accommodation."

She added that male and female showers are separate and that the shower units are "private cubicles and are lockable".

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