ASYLUM SEEKERS have held demonstrations in several towns across the country to protest against the long delays in deciding claims for protection and their poor living conditions.
More than 60 asylum seekers gathered yesterday at the gates of Mosney, Co Meath, to protest against a decision by the Reception and Integration Agency to transfer 109 residents to a hostel in Dublin.
Some residents held up placards saying “Treat Us Like Humans”.
Others complained about the excessive time it was taking to decide if they could be allowed to stay in Ireland.
“I’ve been living in Mosney for eight years. It’s been a terrible experience. I feel I’m wasting away in Ireland,” said one Nigerian woman, who is now facing deportation.
Dawit Girma, a 23-year-old Ethiopian man who is seeking asylum, said he arrived in December 2004, and has lived in Mosney for most of that time.
He got a transfer order to leave Mosney last month, and has since married an Eritrean woman at the centre.
“Since we got married all we’ve been thinking about is how we can stay at the same centre . . .Some people lose their minds living like this. We have no power,” he says.
Several of the protesters said that there was no way they would move to the Hatch Hall hostel in Dublin.
However, others were fearful that staying in Mosney would result in their weekly allowance of €19.10 being cut by the authorities.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said about 59 of the 109 people with transfer orders had already left Mosney.
He said an independent medical referee would look at medical representations made by those asylum seekers appealing their transfer.
However, he said that the Government was committed to enforcing the transfers to save €1.8 million.
The Reception and Integration Agency is attempting to implement the recommendations of a recent “value-for-money” review by renegotiating contracts with suppliers of accommodation.
It has reduced the bed capacity it contracts from Mosney from 800 places to 650 in recent months.
It is also closing several hostels and self-catering centres for asylum seekers in an attempt to make annual costs savings of almost €4 million.
However, the policy is causing concern among asylum seekers and NGOs, who argue that conditions are already poor at many of the centres and reducing capacity will lead to overcrowding.
At many centres asylum seekers are forced to share bedrooms with up to five or six other residents for several years.
The NGO Residents Against Racism said yesterday the Government should shut some of the substandard hostels with very poor conditions rather than Mosney, which is widely recognised as one of the centres with the best conditions for residents.
The Irish Refugee Council said yesterday that it was investigating whether officials from the Reception and Integration Agency broke the law by searching people’s rooms at Mosney in the early hours of last Thursday morning.
Sue Conlan, chief executive of the council, said the searches had unnerved many families living at the centre.
“One boy was sitting on the toilet when the officials searched the bathroom, while some people complained about being partially clothed during the searches,” she said.
A Department of Justice spokesman said the search was a routine bed audit.
Demonstrations were also held yesterday by asylum seekers living in hostels in Tramore, Co Waterford, Sligo, Limerick and Carrick-on-Suir as part of a national day of protest.
The main grievance for the asylum seekers is the length of time it takes for their cases to be processed and the conditions at some of the direct-provision hostels.
About 50 asylum seekers protested in Tramore.
The protesters, who live at the Ocean View House and the Atlantic House in the seaside town, marched from the Holy Cross Church to the Majestic Hotel.