Concern as Ukrainian refugees begin to leave student housing
Vivienne Clarke
Ukrainian refugees housed in student accommodation have begun to vacate campuses to make way for students ahead of the new academic year.
Around 2,500 refugees will have to move elsewhere by the end of this month. However, the secretary general of the Irish Red Cross, Liam O’Dwyer, has said charities do not know where the refugees who are leaving student halls will go.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr O'Dwyer said it had always been known that student accommodation would have to be vacated in the autumn.
It is hoped that many refugees will be able to move into pledged accommodation in the next two weeks, he said.
Mr O’Dwyer said it was a cause for concern that the Red Cross and other charities had not been told where the refugees will be housed next.
He said the Red Cross continues to follow up and engage with pledged accommodation. An issue worrying many Ukrainians was that they remain in an area where their children are registered for school. There are 7,500 refugee children due to go to school in Ireland in the coming weeks.
Mr O’Dwyer said another concern was proximity to work for the 6,000 refugees who have commenced work in Ireland.
It emerged last month that the State had run out of accommodation for arriving refugees – resulting in Ukrainians being temporarily housed in tents at the Gormanston military camp in Co Meath.
When asked how long refugees were staying in Gormanston, Mr O’Dwyer said there was no information other than that such stays were short term. The intention was that people would not stay any longer than a week before they would be moved to Citywest or other accommodation.
He said the focus now was to try to get as many refugees as possible into pledged accommodation. To date between 3,600 to 3,700 had moved into pledged accommodation.
The process was not straightforward as it was necessary to ensure that shared accommodation worked for both parties, he said.
