Asylum seekers will have to sleep rough when moved from Citywest, says Irish Refugee Council

Vivienne Clarke

International asylum seekers who have been accommodated at City West because of a cold weather initiative have been told they must move out this morning and they will end up sleeping rough, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council has warned.

Nick Henderson told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that essentially the people will go back to the streets where they will have to sleep rough “to prove and demonstrate their need for accommodation.

“And then we hope that they would then be given accommodation once that's done. But we're extremely concerned both that people are going back out onto the streets, that they're required to and to demonstrate their needs, putting themselves in a really vulnerable position. And then I suppose also just that the 3000 figure has passed and it's one year since the no accommodation policy began.”

Mr Henderson said the Refugee Council understood that the Government’s position was that they needed the beds in City West for surge capacity and to accommodate women and children.

However, he felt there was capacity in the IPAS system and he was concerned that the weather forecast for the weekend was due to be very cold, wet and windy. The Refugee Council has asked IPAS if they have a cold weather initiative and if they can get a copy of such a policy.

“We presume if the temperature did get back down to what it was two weeks ago, then then they would be accommodated. But this is putting a sticking plaster on a system and an issue that is really, really chronic.

"We're reaching rule of law territory and that the government have ultimately ignored three High Court judgments that very clearly state what are the obligations on the government to accommodate people.”