Ukrainian refugees who were sleeping on the floor of Dublin Airport have found accommodation in a sports hall.
Between 12 and 15 men are staying on fold-out beds in the Aughrim Sports Hall on Aughrim Street in Dublin city centre.
The men arrived on flights into Dublin last Thursday and Friday in the expectation that they would be accommodated.
However, the CityWest transit hub was at capacity, and no other housing was readily available. The men said they were never told there was a problem with accommodation in Ireland.
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Two of the men visited the Ukrainian embassy in the hope that it would help. On Monday night they were finally accommodated in the sports hall.
“We were provided with housing, food, access to bathrooms, the possibility of washing and hot meals,” said Sergey Chudaev, speaking on behalf of the refugees.
“The conditions are as comfortable as possible especially after spending the night at the airport. Our group of refugees is very grateful to everyone who helps us and especially the Ukrainian and Irish governments.
“For now we have urgent issues with documents, warm clothes, work and a permanent place of residence.”
Earlier, independent TD Dr Cathal Berry, a former army ranger, called for disused military facilities to be used for modular housing for Ukrainian refugees, but only if there is community consultation.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Dr Berry said planning to deal with the current accommodation crunch should have commenced months ago and that the Department of Integration had not been established to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.
Dr Berry said there were numerous former military facilities that were wired and plumbed that could be opened up to provide temporary accommodation. But there had to be community consultation, he warned, adding a lack of consultation and support packages for areas needing to be urgently addressed.
Poor site selection for modular homes had also been a problem in Newbridge and Rathangan, added Dr Berry. Kildare County Council previously said it has not been consulted before being chosen for 30 modular housing units. Locals protesting the decision warned that the site is prone to sewage and flooding issues, saying the development would be “landing these people in a quagmire”.
If the Government wanted support then they should get “buy in” from the community. Dr Berry said that in every town in France there was a mayor who knew what was happening. “We don’t have that here — we have very weak local government, there is very little community government,” he said.
Dr Berry acknowledged that many of the old military facilities were “utterly unsuitable” to provide accommodation for women and children immediately. However, there was space in the form of enclosed yards where modular housing could be placed, he said.
When asked about incoming refugees who had to sleep at Dublin Airport last weekend, Dr Berry said it was not unusual for fleeing refugees to have to do that for a few nights, and he had seen it happening on the Polish border. This was a crisis situation and to do that for a few nights until the situation was regulated was understandable, he added.
