Asylum seeker accommodation at ‘breaking point’ as officials told ‘we’ll only take Ukrainians’

The accommodation system for asylum seekers is at “breaking point”, officials say, due to an overwhelming preference in communities towards housing Ukrainians ahead of people from other countries.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has received a large number of offers from businesses and individuals to house refugees in recent months.

However, the majority of these are unwilling to accept asylum seekers from other countries, officials told The Irish Times.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a State body, a private body, a religious organisation, a sports organisation, it’s always the same response: ‘We’ll only take Ukrainians. We won’t take international protection.’ It’s absolutely everywhere, at all levels,” a source said.

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This has left the department’s International Protection Accommodation Services (Ipas) scrambling to find shelter for asylum seekers at short notice.

“On the international protection side, we have nobody. We are absolutely by ourselves,” said an official.

[ Residents moved after Gardaí responded to violent incidents at asylum-seeker accommodation ]

Sources said the State may soon be unable to fulfil its obligations under international law to provide shelter to asylum seekers, with one official raising the prospect of asylum seekers having to sleep rough if the situation does not improve, a move which would significantly worsen the already severe homelessness crisis.

A number of asylum seekers are already being temporarily housed in Defence Forces tents on the grounds of accommodation centres, while there have been reports of those in the centre in Citywest being forced to sleep on chairs.

Gardaí are also concerned the accommodation crisis is stirring up anger, and in some cases violence, as temporary accommodation centres are opened in communities at short notice with little or no public consultation.

Last week, asylum seekers had to be moved from a warehouse in Finglas after only three days following a number of violent incidents and threats.

In July, asylum seekers who were being housed in a hotel in Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, were moved to alternative accommodation after three weeks following local objections. Ukrainian refugees have since been moved into the hotel.

Far-right activists travelled to both Finglas and Kinnegad in a bid to exploit local anger. Gardaí said in both instances false information that the residents of the centres were involved in criminality were spread online.

Local anger in these communities is being compounded by a perceived lack of prior consultation. Officials said in the past they had months to consult local communities, while now they only have weeks or even days due to pressure on the system.

The department is now working on a new protocol which will allow for consultations with communities at short notice.

There are now about 15,000 people in the Ipas system compared with about 7,000 this time last year. This is in addition to the 35,000 refugees from Ukraine being accommodated by the State.

Officials said that even though there are more Ukrainian refugees, the issue of housing asylum seekers from other countries is a far bigger problem.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Integration said Ipas is grateful for all offers of accommodation “regardless of which cohort the owners request to make the accommodation available for”.

“However, the availability of accommodation to house international protection applicants remains a very significant challenge. [The department] remains actively engaged in the sourcing of emergency accommodation to ensure we can continue to meet our international obligations to those seeking refuge in Ireland.”