Scabies outbreak as 1,260 asylum seekers now sleeping rough
THE number of asylum seekers sleeping rough has soared to over 1,200 – and those in tents outside the International Protection Office in Dublin have been hit by a scabies outbreak.
There are now 1,260 male asylum seekers who have been left homeless by the State after they arrived seeking protection.
In the past fortnight this has risen by over 200, with the Government unable to offer accommodation to all arriving here since the start of December.
Between international protection applicants and refugees fleeing Ukraine, the State is now accommodating over 100,000 people.
Around 200 asylum seekers are sleeping in tents on the streets surrounding the International Protection Office in Dublin city centre – 1km from Leinster House. Volunteer group Social Rights Ireland, which is assisting asylum seekers forced to sleep rough, says there are people at the site suffering from scabies and respiratory illnesses due to lack of sanitation.
The people camped there have no access to a toilet, and they have to walk across the city to acquire day services where they can get hot food and a shower.
The nearest homeless day service available to those camped around the Mount Street area is over 1km away, with no toilet available to them at night.
Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said there are around 120 tents around Mount Street in the capital with tarpaulin over some of them to shield them from the elements. He said: ‘People living in the tents and in really very difficult conditions, there is a large pile of refuse where people have put belongings that have been damaged because of the rain, and there is a real absence of support there, particularly in terms of no toilet facilities.’
Speaking on RTÉ, Mr Henderson added: ‘They would have to use the streets, or just not use the toilet at all.’
He also said some of the homeless asylum seekers have been able to get accommodation night by night in the community, or in hostels, adding that with St Patrick’s day coming, this was ‘increasingly difficult’ to come by.
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said the Government’s approach to housing asylum seekers has been ‘absolutely abhorrent’.
She said the Light House centre on Pearse Street has ‘400 people going through the services every day.
She added: ‘There’s literally queues from the second it opens up, until the second it closes at night... at 10pm.’
Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said in December that asylum seekers who are not provided with accommodation will receive a temporary increase of €75 to their daily expense allowance, bringing the total weekly payment to €113.80.
While these asylum seekers cannot access housing and homeless supports offered to citizens and permanent residents, the Department of Integration has arranged for homeless day services located across the city to be open to them for hot food, showers, sanitation and laundry.
Ms Whitmore said: ‘The Government policy is to essentially put these men out on the street where there’s no sanitation, no running water.’ The Department of Integration said last month there were over 2,000 vacant beds in the asylum accommodation system, and another nearly 3,000 beds in the system for Ukrainians.
However, the department said some of these cannot be used as they are family rooms, or there are issues with contractual arrangements.
Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said: ‘These people are effectively homeless. There is a smell, it’s not safe and it’s an insult to everything that Irish people pretend to hold dear.’
‘Absolutely abhorrent’