Call for eviction exemption for single parents in direct provision ahead of Friday deadline

On Thursday, some families still had no alternative accommodation and many others were facing moves across the country, leaving their schools, jobs and communities, charities have said.

In May, letters were sent to people living in direct provision who have been granted international protection status to leave their accommodation by July 5.

Mothers with children in direct provision supported by ActionAid Ireland were devastated by the letter, saying the chances of getting private accommodation were almost impossible.

While there have been reports of women receiving offers of emergency accommodation in the last two weeks, ActionAid, a charity that helps women living in poverty, has been told only four out of six women in a centre in Co Wicklow got accommodation offers. These offers were to Clonmel in Co Tipperary, a significant move requiring their children to change schools.

An exemption to the July 5 deadline has been granted to people over the age of 65 and to those with significant medical or welfare needs.

“We are repeating our call to the Minister of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to extend the exemption to parents with children,” ActionAid chief executive Karol Balfe said. 

“It is simply not acceptable to ask vulnerable women and children to be out of their accommodation.” 

So many of these women have already suffered huge trauma and have been uprooted from their homes and forced to flee to Ireland in the first place due to conflict or crisis.

The prospects of these women getting private accommodation are practically impossible due to the current accommodation crisis, Ms Balfe said. 

“As single parents, not from Ireland and being people of colour, the challenges they face are compounded. There are several stories of landlords extorting people trying to leave direct provision frantically before July 5 because they know they are desperate.” 

John Lannon, chief executive of Doras, a human rights organisation working to support refugees, said he knew of many families now facing imminent eviction from their direct provision centres.

He echoed ActionAid’s call for an exemption from eviction for families.

One family in Limerick are being told to leave even though their two teenage boys are excelling in school and the local soccer club, and their father is in employment, Mr Lannon said.

But there are no affordable homes into which they can move.

The Department Integration is currently providing accommodation to more than 31,000 people, of whom 5,700 have been granted permission to remain in Ireland. 

There is not enough accommodation for newly arrived international protection applicants, the department said.

When an asylum seeker is permitted to remain in Ireland, the Department of Integration no longer has a legal requirement to provide accommodation because they have the same housing entitlements as Irish citizens. 

But the International Protection Accommodation Services has continued to provide accommodation until people can source accommodation independently, the department said.

Meanwhile, five people who were refused asylum or leave to remain in Ireland were arrested on Thursday to be deported.

Gardaí arrested the people who were subject to deportation orders in Dublin. They are in custody pending deportation from the State.