‘I am not that strong any more. . . I couldn’t stay for long in that place’
Journalist tells of his mental health misery in direct provision
AN AWARD-WINNING journalist has told of the mental health struggles he has endured in direct provision in this country.
Egyptian national Mostafa Darwish (30) ended up in the controversial system after he was arrested in his own country.
He was awarded journalist of the year at the Smedia student media awards last week.
Mr Darwish is in the middle of a part-time Masters in Journalism at University of Limerick (UL), but already has a successful career as a freelance journalist for a number of international media organisations.
He has written about Syrian refugees and the direct provision system in Ireland.
He began his media career at the start of the Egyptian revolution in 2011 and covered major breaking stories in his home country.
In 2015, Mr Darwish was arrested while working as a journalist in Egypt.
Egypt has been sharply criticised by human rights and free press organisations for repeatedly trying to prosecute reporters.
Mr Darwish left Egypt and went to a number of other countries before he ended up in Ireland over a year ago.
Because his passport expired, he was forced into the direct provision system.
He believed that if he tried to renew it at the Egyptian Embassy, he would be sent home.
Mr Darwish said he knew from his experience covering stories of asylum seekers all over the world that he did not want to go through this process himself.
“I didn’t want to seek asylum but it was the only solution to be safe,” he said.
Mr Darwish was first sent to the Balseskin reception centre in Dublin, before he was transferred to Drishane Castle direct provision centre in Cork.
He said this centre was a nice place, but he was then moved to Knockalisheen centre just outside Limerick.
“This is a worse place. It reminded me of the prison circumstances that I lived in in Egypt in 2015.
“It was horrible. I am not that strong any more, I couldn’t stay for long,” he said.
He added that his mental health was deteriorating while staying at the centre.
This had an effect on his work and Mr Darwish said he wasn’t able to produce as many stories.
“I used to publish between eight and 12 stories a month when I was working as a journalist.
“But once I got to Ireland, it was down to one story a month,” he said.
He started trying to make money freelancing as a journalist to try to get out of the direct provision centre.
Mr Darwish, who also works as a multimedia journalist, has contributed to Al Jazeera, AP and BBC News.
In 2019, he won the Thomson Foundation’s mobile journalism competition for his report on Egypt’s sharp fare increases to an already inadequate train system.
Throughout his career Mr Darwish has travelled across the Middle East and Europe, covering news and documenting life in Sudan,
Turkey, Malaysia, Sweden, Georgia, Latvia and the United Arab Emirates.
He is currently hoping to get funding from UL to help him finish his Masters.
Mr Darwish said he was “really delighted” to be selected as the overall journalist of the year in this year’s Smedia awards. There were six winners overall from UL at this year’s awards.
Kathryn Hayes, the BA in journalism course director at UL, congratulated all winners but singled out Mr Darwish “for his outstanding work and achievement given what he has overcome personally”.
She added that the award winner was “a huge credit to our programme and to the journalism profession”.
Darwish was singled out for praise for his outstanding work