Several refugees who attempted to set up new tent encampments in areas of Dublin yesterday were run out by locals, it emerged last night.
It followed a directed multi-agency clearout of the latest ‘tent city’ on the Grand Canal earlier in the morning by the Irish government.
Over 160 rough-sleeping refugees were moved to alternative accommodation and their tents – provided by the government – were destroyed.
Irish prime minister Simon Harris said the encampment at the Grand Canal, which popped up weeks after another had to be removed from outside the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount St just 400 metres away, ‘became very close’ to a ‘real public health emergency’.
But just hours after the early morning operation, the Irish parliament heard many refugees headed for both the East Wall and Ringsend areas of Dublin.
Tents being removed from the Grand Canal, Dublin – migrants and asylum seekers had been staying inside them
Several refugees who attempted to set up new tent encampments in areas of Dublin yesterday were run out by locals, it emerged last night
Tents pitched under the Mac Mahon Bridge over the Grand Canal in Dublin
Over 160 rough-sleeping refugees were moved to alternative accommodation and their tents – provided by the government – were destroyed
Several tents were seen pitched near the East Link toll bridge following the canal operation but the men were quickly told to move on by locals, the Irish Daily Mail has learned.
After that, over half a dozen were seen pitched up in Ringsend Park. However, at around 9.30am, the refugees who tried to tent up there were told by a group of men to leave or the matter would escalate, both locals and security sources told the Mail.
The refugees then left.
Later, at the entrance to Ringsend Park, a slashed red Trespass tent was impaled through on the gates at the entrance to the park.
These are the same type of tents which are being handed out to refugees by both homeless organisations as well as state bodies.
Commenting on the image, Social Democrats politician Jennifer Whitmore said: ‘Government failure to deal with this issue is not only causing huge difficulties for asylum seekers and communities, but there are clearly also safety risks for them.
‘It is unacceptable that Government continues to place asylum seekers in a very vulnerable position by refusing to provide them with the necessary supports and accommodation.’
A bus carrying refugees leaves the Grand Canal area of Dublin
Migrants and Asylum seekers pitch tents in the centre of Dublin
Dozens of migrants are fleeing across the Irish Sea every day and setting up camp in the Irish capital amid an ongoing row with the British government over immigration
While no criminal incident was reported to gardaí, security sources have said that officers were made aware of a potential altercation between the men and the refugees.
‘The guards were informed that there were men trying to set up tents in the area but there’s not a lot they can do in this situation.
‘They were keeping an eye on the situation to see if anything developed but thankfully nothing did and no crime was reported in the end,’ our source said.
A local woman who was in the park told the Mail that she had heard about the incident but that there was so sign of any refugees in the park by 3.30pm.
She said: ‘I have been down here with my children since around midday. There was not a sign of them anywhere.
‘Usually I’d let the kids go down on their own so long as they stay together but I had heard that there was a bit of trouble earlier on so that’s why I came down to keep an eye on them.’
Both the East Wall and Ringsend areas of the city have been flashpoints for anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Various protests have taken place in both areas. Ringsend was also the scene of an arson attack on an old pub in December. The premises was rumoured to have been earmarked by the Department of Integration as a location for refugees to be housed.
People stand by rows of tents, near the International Protection Office (IPO) in Dublin on April 30, 2024
Refugees and asylum seekers being moved to International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS)-designated accommodation on May 1
People seeking international protection were moved from outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street on May 1
Mr Harris said yesterday that neither he, nor the Government, would accept tented encampments in the city.
However, with close to 100 asylum seekers arriving each day, and an ongoing shortage of accommodation, similar scenes are likely to be repeated.
He said he had ‘no doubt’ other issues would arise in future but added that the multi-agency response would continue.
‘The days of people saying, ‘that’s not my issue, that’s for that department, that’s for that agency’… I don’t want to hear it. This is Ireland. This is Team Ireland,’ he said.
The Prime Minister said there would not be a situation where another camp would be allowed to stay for weeks or months, adding: ‘Those days are gone. Those days are over. That’s not going to happen.’
But the Government has faced criticism for erecting an array of fences at the Grand Canal and Mount Street to prevent the encampments from returning.
Asked if public spaces would continue to be blocked off with fences, Mr Harris said: ‘The multi-agency response involves a number of different actions happening. It doesn’t involve the long-term erection of barriering off parts of our city, but in the short term that can be a requirement.’
Speaking earlier in the Irish parliament, Ms Whitmore told the deputy prime minister: ‘I hope you have a large supply of fences’ if the Government’s only plan was to fence off large sections of the city centre.
‘Fencing every street in the city isn’t going to work’ she said.
The Department of Integration has confirmed that the tents are provided to refugees who do not have offers of accommodation through a number of charities.
It said it is funding agencies including Mendicity, the Capuchin Day Centre, Tiglin and Crosscare ‘for the provision of necessary basics which may include tents’.
Ms Whitmore told the Irish Daily Mail it was ‘crazy’ that the state was funding tents that are being ‘given out and then a day or two later they are destroyed’.
Ms Whitmore said that asylum seekers without accommodation are simply being ‘given a tent’ and ‘dispersed’, left not knowing where to go. She also criticised the Government for simply moving asylum seekers to different parts of the city.
‘All this is going to do is push people from one street to another. Ultimately they need accommodation and if it’s not there and we have more and more and nowhere else to go then we are going to have more people sleeping on the streets because the IPO is in the city centre.’
In the parliament, Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty said that the Government was limping from crisis to crisis.
Workers hose down the street where migrants were camping in Dublin
Tents cluster near Dublin’s Office of International Protection, serving as temporary homes for asylum seekers
‘It’s clear that you have no coherent strategy. Last week the Prime Minister said he would not allow makeshift shanty towns to develop in Dublin or any other cities or towns.
‘So can you assure the Dáil [Irish parliament] we will not be back here next week facing a similar situation with another 100 tents erected down by the canal or indeed anywhere else across the city?’ he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin replied that it was ‘not sustainable’ to have a tented encampment on the canal or in any public setting.
‘It’s not good for migrants, not good for asylum-seekers, nor for residents, or the general area. I think it’s just simply not acceptable,’ Mr Martin said. ‘There is a plan resolutely to deal with tents wherever they arise.’
A total of 168 people were moved to state-provided accommodation following the dismantling of the makeshift camp on the canal.
A total of 15 international-protection applicants were moved to the site of the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, while 153 were accommodated at the Crooksling site.
However, as seen in the previous operations to move migrants to new housing setups, many decide to return to the city to be closer to people they know or to be closer to the city centre itself.
The multi-agency operation to clear the tents began at approximately 6.30am yesterday.
By approximately 8am, all the tents had been removed.
The asylum seekers who had been living in the makeshift encampment were told it was an offence to stay on the canal and that they would be taken by bus to official accommodation.
Volunteers and a Safetynet mobile health unit also assisted the operation.
The encampment on the waterway emerged shortly after more than 200 asylum seekers were cleared from a similar makeshift camp at the nearby IPO in Mount Street last week.
