A number of tents remained occupied by migrants at Mount Street Bridge on the Grand Canal in Dublin over the weekend.
The camp was set up Saturday afternoon beside Dublin’s Mount Street bridge, as homeless asylum seekers continue what has become an almost daily routine of moving from one makeshift campsite to the next across the capital city.
A total of 28 tents were visible on Sunday. It is understood many among the group of male asylum seekers, who have not been offered accommodation by the State, arrived in the country in recent days.
A young man, barefoot and dressed in a black sweater and sweatpants, sat on the arm of the lock gate Facetiming a friend on a mobile phone on Sunday afternoon. The 20-year-old man, who said his name was Ikram, told The Irish Times he had fled from Afghanistan.
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Ikram smiled and shook his head when asked if he had been offered accommodation by the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS). He has left his contact details with the IPAS office. Asked what he hoped would happen with regard to his future here, Ikram said he would like to work, “but no papers”.
Ikram said his journey to Ireland had taken five days, “through France”. Asked if this was a surprisingly quick path to Ireland, he summoned his cousin Sahil from the two-man tent they were sharing. Sahil said they had previously been in Belgium for a number of years. It had taken the cousins five days to reach Ireland via France, he said.
The camp at Mount Street Bridge followed a Garda clearance of a makeshift camp in Irishtown on Thursday. Previous camps along the Grand Canal have been cleared in a co-ordinated move by Inland Waterways Ireland, which is responsible for the canal system, Dublin City Council and the Garda.
The Garda Press Office said it had no information regarding any proposed moves to clear the camp on Sunday. Waterways Ireland, Dublin City Council and the Department of Justice were contacted for comment.
A total of 2,511 male international protection applicants are currently homeless and awaiting offers of accommodation, up from 2,400 one month ago, and just over 2,000 in early June.
Those without any form of shelter continue to receive tents from Government-funded service providers, while simultaneously being informed that it is illegal to camp in Dublin city. This pattern of camping and moving has continued since March when the Government first cleared tents that appeared around Mount Street Lower outside the International Protection Office.
Those who are regularly moved on told The Irish Times earlier this month they are made to “feel criminalised” because of a lack of accommodation and no longer feel safe camping on the streets of the capital.
The Government has said Afghan nationals facing transfers to other EU countries under a process known as the Dublin III procedure, would have their applications for international protection examined in Ireland on compassionate grounds. However, the Asylum Information Database of the European Council of Refugees and Exiles said the extent to which “compassionate grounds” applied “remains unclear as data regarding the nationalities of those subject to the Dublin procedure is not readily accessible”.
A small number of protesters, who took part in the Take Back Our Spaces demonstration outside the Department of Integration on Baggott Street Lower on Saturday, tore down fencing along Mespil road which was erected by Waterways Ireland.
The fencing, which stretches from Grand Canal Street near the Google office, to Windsor Terrace in Portobello, started going up in late May after more than 100 asylum seekers were evicted from a camp on the banks of the water. Some of the fencing was temporarily pulled down in mid-July following a protest, but was quickly reinstated by gardaí.
The Take Back Our Spaces Coalition have described the fencing as “exclusionary, racist and classist” and warn the metal barriers are being used to “weaponise the immigration issue” and “divide working-class communities”.
The all-island Waterways Ireland organisation pays around €30,000 per week on maintain the fencing. It has acknowledged the use of these barriers along a public amenity “is not ideal, but it is necessary to mitigate risk to health and safety, which is our over-riding concern” and says it is working on “a landscaping and programme” as a potential solution to the problem.
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