Ukrainian refugee on move from Kerry to Mayo says notice ‘isn’t long enough to change our lives again’

A Ukrainian refugee who has been housed in a hotel in Killarney since April but was given less than 48-hours’ notice that she is being moved to Co Mayo said this timeline “isn’t long enough to change our lives again”.

Karina Karpova and her son Boris, who celebrated his 15th birthday on Tuesday, are part of a group of some 135 Ukrainian women and children living in a Killarney hotel for the past six months and who were informed on Monday they will be bussed to Westport at noon on Wednesday.

The move is to make way for almost 200 male asylum seekers who have been bussed to their accommodation in Killarney from Citywest, Dublin.

Ms Karpova said the refugees “feel very bad” and “everyone is crying” as they had started to build lives for themselves in the area.

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“Our children are going to the school. Some people are working here. We have friends and plans. I bought books for my son for the school year. I was planning to study hospitality and tourism in Kerry college in November,” she said.

“We are sad that we have no choice. We can’t understand what we’re to do in this place, we don’t even know what the place is. The children have to change everything now again. It would be different if they gave us a month, or a week, but these hours isn’t long enough to change our lives again.”

Killarney had become their “new home until we could go back to Ukraine”, she said, adding it is “very stressful for us”.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of community leaders on Monday, the mayor of Killarney said moving asylum seekers into a hotel and moving out Ukrainian refugees there since March “does not make any sense”, and called for a reversal of the decision to move out a well-settled community.

Some 192 males from Libya, North Africa and Georgia were bussed to the accommodation, Hotel Killarney, on Saturday.

‘Significant pressure’

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said increased numbers of people fleeing the war in Ukraine and those seeking international protection has put “significant pressure” on accommodation.

“We find it particularly hard to source accommodation for those in the international protection process and the hotel that’s in question here in Killarney is one that we can use for international protection,” the Minister told RTÉ Radio’s News at One.

Mr O’Gorman said he understood the Ukrainian families had become integrated into the community in Killarney and that efforts were being made through Kerry County Council and NGOs to find alternative local pledged accommodation for the mothers and their children.

“I absolutely understand this is upsetting for those families involved,” he said.

The mayor of Killarney Niall Kelleher called for a reversal of the decision.

A meeting took place at the hotel on Monday night at the hotel attended by Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin, the asylum seeker representative body KASI, and school principals as well as Ukrainian representatives.

“We want that decision reversed. How does it make sense we would remove people here since March in order to install others?” Niall Kelleher, mayor of Killarney said.

Extra tourist properties have come on stream in Killarney now that the high tourist season is past, and the Ukrainians could be accommodated in those premises, if their hotel was now becoming a direct provision centre, he said.

There are now some 2,000 Ukrainians in the town under the temporary accommodation provision for Ukrainians, along with hundreds more in direct provision centres.