Grand Canal: Latest clearance of asylum seekers’ tents gets under way

Tents housing asylum seekers are being cleared from the Grand Canal in Dublin on Thursday morning, the third such clearance in recent weeks.

From 6am workers from Waterways Ireland, which manages the canal network; the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS); the HSE; Dublin City Council and gardaí were on site at Wilton Terrace.

More than 100 men sleeping in tents were being woken and handed sheets of paper telling them they were being offered accommodation and that they had to leave.

Volunteers were assisting the men with their belongings. Two coaches were parked on Wilton Terrace, and three on Mespil Road.

The men will be brought to alternative accommodation in the Dublin area, where they will be housed in tents but will have access to food and sanitary facilities.

IPAS staff have been distributing leaflets informing the men they “do not have permission” to stay in the area and if they return after it is cleared, they face being “arrested and prosecuted”.

Scores of tents are being gathered by a truck with a grabber claw and being taken away for disposal. Volunteers trying to salvage the tents for reuse were told by statutory authorities on site thjat they are not allowed “for public health reasons”.

Volunteers are removing tarpaulins they brought to protect tents against the elements from the canal area.

The clearance follows similar clearances, on May 9th and 21st, in which in each operation more than 100 tents were cleared. Within hours of each operation, smaller encampments emerged as men were left behind, either because they missed buses provided to transport them or were not included on lists of those to be offered accommodation.

More than 500 men have been transferred from the Grand Canal to safer and more secure facilities in recent weeks, officials say.

As of Tuesday, there were 1,939 male asylum seekers “awaiting offer of accommodation”, according to data published by IPAS.

A total of 3,469 “eligible male” migrants have presented to apply for asylum since December 4th, when IPAS announced it would no longer offer shelter to men when they present.

Volunteers working with homeless asylum seekers have in recent days been contacting those without accommodation who are not sheltering at the canal but are sleeping in bus stations, train stations, mosques, churches and in tents in and outside the city centre.

Senior Government sources say facilities at Thornton Hall in north Co Dublin, which is likely to house a large tented encampment for asylum seekers, are unlikely to be ready for four to six weeks.