Housing supply for asylum seekers buckling under strain of rise in new arrivals

In the summer of 1998, four young Congolese men were living in a large run-down house on Montpelier Hill in Dublin 7 that was divided into over a dozen flats. When I met them in their bedsit, they were playing Scrabble to improve their English.

Their vocabulary had greatly improved since coming to Ireland. They helpfully called out a number of new English words they had also learned that never made it to the Scrabble board. They were the occasional hurtful insults these young men of colour encountered from random strangers on the street.

Ireland’s attitude towards asylum seekers has always been somewhat ambivalent. In the quarter of a century since 1998, no mass anti-immigrant movement or party has become established. But, at times, public and political sentiment has swayed against those seeking asylum, on grounds of numbers entering the State.

In the early 2000s, the annual number of those seeking international protection peaked at almost 12,000. Arguments were advanced that Ireland’s system was too open and served as a “pull factor”, and that most coming in were economic migrants. The political response was the introduction of direct provision, as well as a citizenship referendum in 2004, that removed from Irish-born children of foreign nationals the automatic right of residency.

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Since 2003, the numbers have remained low and steady, usually at or about 5,000 annually. That has been until now.

In addition to the estimated 35,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Ireland since the Russian invasion in March, there has been a parallel rise in non-Ukrainian asylum seekers coming into the State.

UK influence

In the first five months of this year, 4,896 applications for international protection in Ireland were received. That was a 700 per cent increase on the same period in 2021. Because of Covid, last year was not typical. Still it was a 164 per cent up on 2019, the last straight comparable year. If the trajectory continues like this, it will come close, or exceed, the highest annual figures on record.

Why the surge? Politicians and NGOs cite a number of reasons. One is undoubtedly the UK policy decision to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing. There is anecdotal evidence that Ireland may be seen as a back door. The marked increase in the number of Somalis applying here indicate this – as Britain has long been a favoured destination.

“It’s very clear there has been a displacement effect – the UK sending out a hostile message that people should be going elsewhere,” says Piaras Mac Éinrí, lecturer in migrant studies at UCC.

Brendan Griffin, a Fine Gael TD from Kerry, also believes the UK’s Rwandan policy is having an impact here. “I think also some countries have taken a disproportionately high number of Ukrainian refugees and they have no place for other nationalities. Some of them have been drifting to Ireland.”

The upshot is a looming crisis. “It’s a runaway train coming down the track at us, and we have no way to stop it,” one Minister told The Irish Times despondently.

As of June 5th, there were 11,873 people living in international protection accommodation throughout the State, mostly direct provision. This is up from 7,000 at the end of 2021 – it also stood at 7,000 in 2020. On top of that, there are an estimated 24,000 Ukrainian refugees in emergency accommodation. And new asylum seekers are arriving in Ireland at a rate of 1,500 a month.

“Two weeks ago, the mantra was indirect provision, own-door accommodation for everyone. That’s all changed. Right now, actual provision of any accommodation might not even be there. That’s how far things have gone in a relatively quick period of time,” says Griffin.

Breaking point

It is not only accommodation. Paul Kehoe, the Fine Gael TD who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Education, talks about schools which have accepted children in some areas reaching breaking point with overcrowded classrooms. Referring to the images of people sleeping on the floors of conference rooms, he says. “It’s wrong. We all know it’s wrong. The Government is shaking the trees everywhere to get accommodation. It’s becoming an absolute nightmare for Government and will get worse as the months go on.”

That sentiment is echoed everywhere. The pinch point will come in September when student accommodation is no longer available.

“There may have been a hope that war in Ukraine would have come to an end by now but it’s clear that is not going to happen,” says Mac Einrí.

“We have a crisis in housing from September onwards. It’s not clear what the Government is going to do about that. They do need to let us know what their plans are,” he says.

The problems are manifold but the solutions are harder to find. Some of his colleagues now think it was a mistake for Taoiseach Micheál Martin to make an open-ended offer in terms of Ukrainian refugee numbers. “I’m entirely in favour of immigrants of all kinds,” says one Government source. “But it’s leaving a message out there to keep coming. We are now reaching a point where there is no place for people to go.”

Modular housing

Fianna Fáil Senator Pat Casey says a clear pathway is needed to deal with the growing numbers. Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore makes a similar point, and argues that the system has been slow to keep pace with the crisis.

For example, the number of offers of pledged accommodation that have been taken up has been low. At a Cabinet subcommittee last Monday, it was decided that the Health Service Executive’s contact tracing teams would be used to speed up the vetting process. There are also plans for the Office of Public Works to build modular housing, for local authorities to free up vacant properties, and for tented accommodation to be built in places like Gormanstown.

But none of that will happen immediately. Beyond that, there are systemic problems. Routine deportations were suspended during the Covid pandemic and have not recommenced. People who apply for protection cannot be turned away. It takes two years for a first decision in their status, and five years or more if they have made an appeal. By the time a final decision is made, the person has put down roots in Ireland and in communities. Deportation becomes problematic.

Even at the end of the process, there are delays. There are parliamentary questions in relation to deportation orders that were issued as far back as 2002 but have not been executed as yet.

“Processing takes way too long and is inhumane,” says Whitmore. “Families here build up relationships and make Ireland their home. The Government needs to make sure that for those seeking asylum their applications are processed quickly and fairly.”