On Wednesday morning, in a sheltered laneway between Mount Street and Verschoyle Place in Dublin’s city centre, a Garda approached a small tent and announced his presence to the occupant: “Garda, police.”
The Garda told the man inside that he would have to gather himself, and his belongings – he was being moved to new accommodation.
It was the same for each of the 200-odd asylum seekers living in the Mount Street encampment. At about 7am, scores of uniformed gardaí began to move the men out of their tents, directing them to board idling buses. Once onboard, they would be transferred to tented accommodation in Crooksling, south Co Dublin, or to Citywest.
Some were handed A4 sheets in several languages by IPAS staff, informing them they did not have permission to remain in the Mount Street area.
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“If you refuse to come to the available accommodation or you later return to stay in this area you may be moved on by An Garda Síochána (Police) and you may be arrested and prosecuted,” the sheet read.
Not everyone wanted to leave Mount Street. Mohammed Said said he was woken by gardaí early in the morning and told he was being moved to new accommodation.
Said, who said he was from Egypt and looked to be in his 40s, said he had been staying close to the IPO since arriving in Ireland from the UK a fortnight ago.
He said that he did not want to board the bus. He was upset at how he’d been treated by gardaí since arriving in Ireland: “These people don’t respect me, [they treat me] like animal.”
“They tell me they take me to court, for what, I don’t know. I’m not doing anything bad for anyone.”
He was leaving the Mount Street area on foot, holding his tent and a blue plastic bag with a duvet.
Another asylum seeker, a man from Morocco, said he was awoken on Wednesday and told that everyone was being moved to “another place”. He had arrived in Ireland six months ago, he said.
He said he did not want to go to alternative accommodation, because he’d be separated from his partner. The couple are currently homeless, he said tearfully, walking in the direction of the Grand Canal with two shopping bags of belongings.
The Mount Street area was completely surrounded by a Garda cordon on Wednesday morning, with only those who could prove they worked or lived on the street allowed to pass through. A considerable media presence – including reporters from British outlets – gathered at the Holles Street side of the street, craning to get a better view of what was unfolding. Members of the public stopped on their way to work and videoed from afar.
As soon as the street was evacuated, after 8am, heavy machinery – a hydraulic grabber – gathered up tents to be disposed of. The encampment was dismantled before lunch.
At Crooksling on Wednesday morning, Dia Mohammed said he was happy to be moved to new accommodation.
Standing at the bus stop across from St Brigid’s Home, Mohammed (25), from Jenin in the West Bank, said he arrived in Ireland seven days ago. He said he spent that time at the IPO in “difficult” conditions.
He said he was happy to be in Ireland, where there were “very nice, very good” people.
It took him four months to get from Palestine to Ireland, via Egypt, Turkey and France, he said.
A short distance from the entrance to the Crooksling site, two men in their 30s, from Morocco and Egypt, said they had arrived at St Brigid’s Home from the IPO on one of three buses on Wednesday morning.
Some people were happy to leave the IPO, they said, but not everyone, as Crooksling is far from the city centre.
The men said they had arrived in Ireland some time ago from the UK, travelling to Dublin from Belfast.
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