ANGER AS MOSNEY SYRIANS PAY MORE FOR FOOD
Basics such as Rice Krispies cost €1.29 more
SYRIAN refugees are being charged way more than ordinary supermarket prices for basic foods such as Rice Krispies, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The families, who have fled Bashar al-Assad’s bombed-out warzone, are being housed in Mosney direct provision camp and given a plastic ‘points’ card to buy food from an onsite store.
The shop belongs to local millionaire, Phelim McCloskey who last year was ranked Number 236 on Ireland’s rich list, with a fortune of over €45million.
The shocking news, which has led refugees to complain to the Mail on Sunday, comes in the week graphic images of children killed in the refugees’ home country, by a sarin gas attack, led US President Donald Trump to launch air strikes against the Assad regime.
The refugees have to pay as much
as €1.29 more out of their frugal allowances for such basic items as a box of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, the MoS discovered when we visited the store this week. A jar of honey was 99c extra and even a pack of 12 rolls of toilet paper was €1.21 more than supermarkets were charging.
The refugees have to use their points sparingly. They are worth €1 each and, for instance, the MoS has learned that one single person is given 70 points week, while a family of five gets 140 points and another family, with three adults, gets 120.
Refugees, who arrived here under an EU special protection programme at the end of last year, say the high prices at the shop make it difficult for families to provide meals for a week.
There are about 160 being housed in Mosney.
‘We are running out of the food by the end of the week because the prices are so high in the shop,’ said one. ‘If we could take this money and shop [in Lidl or Aldi], we could make it last but the prices being charged here are just too expensive. Someone is making a big profit.’
The MoS found that most prices are considerably higher than traditional supermarkets and sometimes more than double the price for similar type goods at discount supermarkets.
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, which cost €3 in supermarkets, were on sale at €4.29, an iceberg lettuce cost €1.15 compared with 47c elsewhere, a jar of Boyne Valley honey cost €4.20, compared with €3.29 in other supermarkets and a 2kg bag of Daily Basics flour was €1.99 compared with €1.29.
Sanitary and cleaning items, which the refugees must purchase themselves, had mark ups of over 35% on high street prices.
Cif lemon cream cost €3.15, compared to €2 in Tesco and Daily Basics Toilet roll x 12 were €3.90 compared to €2.69 in Supervalu.
Bizarrely, Mosney mugs are also for sale, as souvenirs of the camp, according to a salesperson there.
Only two items we saw were the same price as in supermarkets, Heinz baked beans (€1.05) and Aptamil comfort formula milk (€14.69).
The newly opened shop has replaced the dining hall, where refugees and asylum seekers were once fed. The camp residents are now given the cards instead so they can buy and cook their own food.
The shop has a clean modern fit-out, similar to most food stores, with a hot food section, a butchers and a confectionary counter.
However, unlike other shops, all the food is behind counters and shoppers must point at what they want and an assistant hands it to them. A resident of the camp we spoke to outside the shop said he did not blame Mr McCloskey for the high prices.
‘He’s actually quite a nice guy but he’s a business man, he’s not here to make things good for us, he just wants to make profits and that is fair I believe.
‘If he doesn’t do it, someone else will,’ they added.
‘The fault is with the Government for allowing people to make profit from this whole mess out here. It’s like they haven’t thought through what they do here.’
Last week, the MoS revealed how our State is also charging the refugees – that is people who have been given a legal right to live and work here because they are fleeing the bloody civil war in their own country – bed and board, and housing them in rooms side by side with asylum seekers from elsewhere.
After their points, they are left with a similar amount to the €19 that an asylum seeker gets, for incidental expenditure. Most asylum seekers have applied to live and work in the country and are still being assessed.
The points system exists despite Government commitments that Syrian refugees, being fasttracked through the immigration system under an EU programme, would not be housed in the controversial direct provision system.
Over the last 10 years, Mr McCloskey’s firm, Mosney, has received over €110m from the Justice Department to house asylum seekers and now refugees.
Last week the MoS revealed that Syrian refugees have been placed in Direct Provision camps here, contrary to previous government assurances and despite being flown here by the Government and afforded special protection under the EU programme.
The Justice Department initially completely misrepresented the situation, when asked how many Syrian refugees were living in Mosney direct provision camps, answering:
‘If we could shop in Lidl we could make it last’
‘None’. It then said that the Syrians were living in a different area of the camp to asylum seekers.
However, a visit to the Mosney site showed that Syrians are not living in a separate area of the camp but are living in direct provision accommodation.
In response to queries from the MoS this week, the department said the points system remains ‘under constant review’.
A spokesperson said: ‘Mosney is contracted up to September 2018 and part of this contract is the provision of appropriate food to residents. This is now being delivered through the food hall facility.’
Mr McCloskey refused to answer our queries as to why the prices at Mosney food hall were set so high.
However, David Stanton, the junior minister responsible for Equality, Immigration, and Integration, defended the points system at Mosney, in the Dáil recently.
He said: ‘The system... is the culmination of a lengthy analysis process by staff in the Reception & Integration Agency (RIA) and by the management team at the centre. This analysis led to the allocation of a weekly number of points to each adult and child resident in the centre. These points are then used to obtain fresh food in the food hall. As a result, parents and single persons are now able to cook food in their own accommodation for their own families.’ He said the food hall was open six days a week and stock replenished as required. Justice Minister Francis Fitzgerald also defended the direct provision camp at Mosney in a letter to a concerned voter.
‘Asylum seekers in all centres are treated humanely and with respect,’ she wrote. ‘Staff who work in