Gardai dismantle another asylum seeker camp as quarter of new arrivals left homeless

A group of around 20 gardaí yesterday dismantled a new encampment of asylum seekers in Dublin’s Phoenix Park, who had arrived there after leaving the Grand Canal.

While the Government vowed to take a zero-tolerance approach to such camps, more than a quarter of asylum seekers arriving here in the past month were left homeless.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said leaving asylum seekers to fend for themselves on the streets is ‘inhumane and unsustainable’, both for them and for residents of the areas where encampments have appeared.

Approximately 15 tents had been set up in a wooded area just off Military Road on the south side of the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, after the asylum seekers were forced to leave Charlemont Place by the Grand Canal in recent days.

Several hours before they were moved on, the asylum seekers had been informed by park rangers that camping is prohibited under the park’s by-laws.

Then at about 5.30pm, staff of the Office of Public Works, supported by a large Garda presence and the public order unit, arrived at the site to remove the tents.

However, a group of supporters with their faces covered formed a human chain to prevent them from doing so. A garda warned them that they would be arrested if they did not step aside which resulted in the supporters being physically lifted and pushed away.

The tents were then placed into a lorry for disposal as the activists voiced their objections.

A Garda spokesman said: ‘The Phoenix Park is a historic park enjoyed by thousands of visitors annually for active and passive recreation. It contains many attractions and over 20 wildlife habitats. While the park is open on a 24-hour basis, the vast majority of the park is unlit at night. Camping and overnight parking are not permitted in Phoenix Park, nor any other parks in Dublin, due to health and safety concerns and potential damage to these fragile sites.

‘The OPW has engaged with the Simon Community Outreach team, who are currently assisting the people concerned. An Garda Síochána are also at the site.’

A volunteer who did not wish to be named told the Irish Daily Mail that the asylum seekers have been let down by the State.

‘It’s the Government’s job to find these people suitable accommodation and it’s not right that they have no other choice but to set up these camps’ they said. ‘They’re just going to move around from place to place if nothing is being done for them.

‘There are so many vacant buildings in Dublin city and it does not make sense why these international protection applicants can’t be housed in them.’

Ms Bacik, who lives near the Grand Canal, told the Irish Daily Mail she has become ‘deeply frustrated at the continued presence of the awful security barriers along our beautiful canal.

‘This ongoing issue represents a very visible failure of Government policy and I will continue to push the Government to develop a more sustainable and coherent policy on refugee accommodation and accommodation for those currently in homelessness.’

Ms Bacik commended the work of local volunteers and residents who provided support to asylum seekers living in tents in their areas in recent weeks, but added ‘clearly this is not sustainable’.

Ms Bacik again pointed to the vacant State-owned old hospital at Baggot Street which could be repurposed for asylum seeker accommodation. The Government has been unable to provide State accommodation to all asylum seekers since December, prioritising women and children over men for scant shelter.

A quarter of the 1,356 people who have arrived here in the past four weeks were left homeless. In the past week alone, 53 of the 429 arrivals were left without accommodation. Earlier this week a large number of gardaí assisted a private security company to remove around 60 tents from the verge outside a vacant office building on the Grand Canal.

It comes amid further delays to the use of the 160-acre north Dublin site, Thornton Hall, as permanent tented accommodation for hundreds of asylum seekers. That was due to be ready by the end of June.

However, now the Department of Integration has said it’s not possible to provide a timeframe for when it will be opened.

The department has admitted that ongoing protests at the Thornton Hall site are ‘hampering progress’. Protesters have maintained a constant presence at Thornton Hall since May, with a spokesman for the Department of Integration saying, ‘on occasions, contractors have been impeded from accessing the site, security cameras have been damaged.’