Tents are again being used in Knockalisheen, County Clare, to receive applicants for international protection, despite Minister Roderic O’Gorman pledging last month not to use the tents.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Inclusion and Youth confirmed to RTÉ News that “there are currently 88 people residing in tented accommodation”.
The spokesman said the Department “will endeavour to ensure that the use of tents at Knockalisheen is a short-term measure, but in the context of the accommodation shortage, the priority must remain on providing shelter”, reports RTE.
In December, over 100 applicants for international protection were moved from tents to the same site as Knockalisheen Direct Care Centre in Meelick after living there for three months.
Around the same time, in November, some 165 people were relocated from a tented accommodation in Athlone, Co Westmeath, and 40 people who had applied for international protection were relocated from a tent in Tralee, County Kerry.
On December 7, a ministry statement to RTÉ News said the tented accommodation will “cease to operate once the current residents are all re-accommodated”.
Five days later, on December 12, Minister O’Gorman told RTÉ’s Claire Byrne: “We are not going to be using the tents in Knocakisheen again,” reports RTE.
NGOs and migrant rights groups had expressed concern that people were sleeping in tents during the winter months, particularly when temperatures plummeted below freezing in the first few weeks of December.
Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe described the conditions in the tents in Clare as “inhumane”.
The National Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Eugene Quinn, said it was “very disappointing to see the tents reopened so shortly after they were closed and following commitments made by the Minister that they would not be reopened,” reports RTE.
The Chief Executive of Limerick-based Migrant Rights Group Doras, John Lannon, said the decision was “surprising” given the minister’s assurance in December that the use of tented accommodation for refugees would end.
“Given the concerns highlighted by Doras and others last year, particularly during the cold weather in December, it is vital that this is a very temporary measure only. Knockalisheen does not have the capacity to deal with the additional numbers, and this means that every international protection applicant living there is affected by the increased numbers. In particular, the impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of people in the tents is huge. Tents are not suitable accommodation at any time but in Winter they can become quite unbearable,” Mr Lannon said, reports RTE.
A spokesperson for the Department said “the war in Ukraine combined with the high number of International Protection applicants continues to put real pressure on the Government’s ability to offer accommodation, and has resulted in the largest humanitarian effort in the State’s history,” reports RTE.
According to the ministry, as of Jan. 2, 51,955 Ukrainian refugees and 19,300 people seeking international protection were admitted.
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