The current refugee situation has been described as “very serious” by a Red Cross spokesperson.
The number of refugees arriving in Ireland has increased sharply over the last number of days and some have had to sleep on bare floors at Dublin Airport. Elsewhere, Direct Provision centres are overcrowded and asylum seekers staying at hotels have had to sleep on floors and chairs.
While there have been around 9,000 pledges from Irish people to take in refugees, the government and a number of refugee charities have needed to find alternative ways of accommodating those fleeing war and persecution as they continue to arrive in large numbers.
These alternatives include campsites, large buildings like the old terminal at Dublin Airport and modular homes, which are expected to be in use by the Autumn.
“The situation is very serious and the numbers are quite tight. All of the NGOs have come together in a big group now in full cooperation and are redoubling their efforts to find extra homes outside of the pledging process,” says Brian Purcell of the Irish Red Cross.
“There’s no doubt it’s not ideal but it’s an emergency and needs must,” he said.
Purcell says that this recent increase in the number of incoming refugees came as a surprise. The new policy from the UK government that diverts refugees to Rwanda is something that has contributed to the rise in numbers as well, he thinks.
“The recent pulse of people has been caused by an increase of refugees coming in from Ukraine but that’s been further augmented by refugees coming in from other countries looking for political asylum. That particular pulse wasn’t foreseen at all,” he said.
Claire Tetart, a spokesperson for the Irish Refugee Council, is of the same opinion.
“It’s a bit of a surprise. A lot of people are coming because they originally planned to go to the UK and with the Rwanda plan, they were directed to Ireland and I think the government couldn’t have envisioned this,” she said.
Despite the difficulty of the situation, Prucell says that the government has been very supportive.
“The government are definitely all over this,” he said.
He is also full of praise for the people of Ireland and Irish companies, who he says have been very generous. “They’ve just been amazing, the way they’ve come forward,” said Purcell, commenting on the €300,000 worth of goods the public had donated to the Red Cross in the last three months.
Tetart of the IRC says that her organisation would like to see more accommodation made available in the short term by establishing more campsites, like the one at Gormanstown, County Meath, but warns that they are not a long-term solution.
“I think we need to build more accommodation. The Direct Provision centres are overcrowded. We went to the Red Cow Hotel and people are sleeping basically on the floor. There are some people who have been reaching out to us and some families are saying there is nowhere to sleep so they are sleeping on chairs.”
The IRC would also like a single executive or tsar to be appointed to oversee and streamline the entire system, which is currently spread across multiple NGOs and government departments.
“That would be great, either someone from the office of the Taoiseach or from the Department of Children,” she said. As it stands, the system is “very chaotic” and that there is “an urgent need for a plan.”
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