Ukrainian refugees in town of a thousand welcomes are scared and anxious
IT was held up as an example of how to successfully manage the integration of large numbers of immigrants into a rural community.
However, today some of the 300 Ukrainians who are still living in Cahersiveen in Co. Kerry say they are ‘scared’ and anxious’ about the future as Ireland introduces restrictions on their compatriots coming here.
From early next year, there will be a 90-day limit on State accommodation for new arrivals here from Ukraine and their weekly welfare will be cut from €220 to €38.80.
Introducing the measures recently, Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman insisted they will not lead to an increase in homelessness. But many Ukrainians disagree.
Olena Shablii, a physics teacher from Ukraine, arrived in the tourist town in the summer of 2022 from the bombed out western Ukrainian city of Dnipro, still in shock after the rug was pulled from under her world.
Last summer, she told the Irish Mail on Sunday she couldn’t have come to a better place.
The community warmly embraced the new arrivals and many Ukrainians quickly found work in the town and have even opened businesses there.
When there was an attempt to move them to a different town last April, locals successfully lobbied the Government to let them stay.
Ms Shablii says she ‘still loves’ living in the town, but admits to being ‘scared’ of the future.
She added: ‘The big problem is accommodation. It’s the problem for all us Ukrainians and I know for everyone else in Ireland too. We’re still living in the centre (for asylum seekers) and that situation can’t go on if we want to make our life here. We’re searching, searching for a house, a flat, anything but there doesn’t seem to be anything out there.’
Ms Shablii, who is studying accountancy in Tralee so she will have ‘an Irish qualification’, is here with her 15-year-old daughter.
Her husband is fighting on the frontline in Ukraine. But because they live in State sponsored accommodation, they are not allowed to return to Ukraine to visit him, even for a few days.
She revealed: ‘So my daughter cannot go to visit her father. Only if someone is extremely sick or has died, can people go.
‘It’s another reason why we want our own place. We want to make our own way here. We love it here. I can’t say how much. It is the most wonderfully welcoming place.
‘And my daughter’s school has to be the best school in the world.
‘The way she is treated there is just fantastic. I never want to give that up.’
Another Ukrainian woman who has been living in Cahersiveen since 2022 said news of the new measures due to be introduced here have already filtered back to Ukraine.
The woman, who did not want to be named, told the MoS: ‘I know because I’ve had messages asking about them. On my WhatsApp groups they’re asking me about it.
‘The minister says it doesn’t affect us [Ukrainians already here], but it does affect us because the numbers looking for private accommodation will be even higher. It makes me anxious.
‘There isn’t a Ukrainian person here who isn’t looking for a house to rent.’
Local woman, Stephanie Mahey who spearheaded the campaign to keep the Ukrainians in the town last April, said that while some have left in the last six months, most have stayed. She said of the housing
shortage: ‘Yes, the accommodation crisis is as big in Kerry as it is in the rest of the country.
‘There are absolutely no rentals to be had so that’s another big problem.’
Ms Mahey said Ukrainians and asylum seekers from other countries are ‘as welcome as they always were’.
She also revealed that locals have been ferrying pregnant asylumseeking women to Tralee for their hospital appointments.
She told the MoS: ‘The [accommodation] centre has opened up to many other asylum seekers in the last six months and we’ve had seven or eights babies born here in recent months.
‘So there was a hiccup with their transport and locals stepped in to drive the women to take them to their appointments.’
Mr Mahey said a Ukrainian man injured in the frontline fighting against Russian invaders stepped into the role of St Patrick in the annual parade this year.
She added: ‘He hadn’t a clue what he was doing but he was happy to do it.’