A single mother living in direct provision says she can no longer cope with the uncertainty that has hung over her since she was told to leave the centre where she lives.
“It’s not that we don’t want to move out, of course we do, people need to know that,” says Rachel, whose name has been changed to protect her anonymity. “But it’s been a nightmare. No one responds to my emails. We have nowhere to go.”
She started searching for a home as soon as she and her young son were granted permission to remain in Ireland in May 2022 and received approval for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). However, despite sending hundreds of emails to estate agents and landlords, Rachel heard almost nothing back.
“Until that point all I wanted was my papers so I could move on to the next step in my life. But that step has been so difficult. I never imagined it would be so hard to find a place to live. It’s put all my dreams on hold.”
In February, Rachel says she received an “eviction letter” from the Department of Integration requesting she leave the centre where she lives in the southeast of the country by July 5th. This date has since come and gone but she has received no further correspondence. Rachel says she is no longer able to sleep and worries each day that she will be told to pack up and leave.
“Just coping with this lack of information is a huge challenge. The manager in my centre has no information either. When they find out, I’ll find out.”
If she has to move out, Rachel, who works locally, and her son, who is due to begin first year of secondary school at the end of August, will be “saying goodbye to the life we’ve built here”.
“It was challenging for my son to adjust when we first moved here. Now he’s made friends and this is his home. If we have to move again, it will really set him back. And I don’t have the strength for it.”
The Irish Government has a way of leaving issues to linger until it becomes a huge problem and then the people caught up in the situation get blamed
— Ola Mustapha
For years, asylum seekers given permission to remain in Ireland have struggled to secure private rental accommodation and leave the direct provision centres where they live, in large part due to the housing crisis.
In September 2022, the Department of Integration started sending out letters to single people or couples who have had status for more than nine months, and families who have had status for more than 18 months, requesting that they move to “alternative accommodation in the community” by a set date.
A department official says these are not “evictions” as “no person will end up on the street”, but “transfers to different accommodation”. Nearly 3,000 “households” have received these letters in the past two years, the department says.
More than 5,000 people with status have left International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) housing in the past 18 months, but another 5,700 people with permission to remain were still living in IPAS accommodation in July 2024, according to department figures.
Civil society groups have appealed for the Government to exempt lone parents from what they call “evictions”, saying families are “devastated” by the prospect of moving their children from the town or area that has become their home.
Many of these women, including Rachel, have received no further information since the initial correspondence, and must continue their daily lives “with the threat of eviction hanging over them”, says ActionAid head of programmes Gráinne Kilcullen.
“This is just playing chess with people’s lives,” says Kilcullen. “Obviously these women don’t want to stay in direct provision but they also don’t want to be transferred somewhere that forces them to move their children out of school.
“By doing this, we’re losing out on that fundamental integration and social cohesion that happens with young people.”
Ola Mustapha is holding off buying school uniforms for her three children because she doesn’t know if they will be asked to move from their direct provision centre in Co Mayo “today, tomorrow or next week”.
Like Rachel, she received a transfer notice earlier this year but appealed the decision on the grounds of her son’s special needs. Three days before the scheduled transfer on July 5th, she received an email saying her family’s move was on hold.
“I’ve heard nothing back since then. I recognise the severity of the situation with housing and if it’s absolutely necessary for us to move, we will. But we would prefer to remain here.”
Mustapha has lived in the same direct provision centre for 10 years and spent the two years since she received leave to remain searching for a place to rent in counties Mayo, Sligo and Galway. Like Rachel, she says most of her emails go unanswered. In one instance, when she was offered a viewing, she says the landlord said he didn’t want to rent to a single mother “because I might bring single men to the house. It was so dehumanising. Maybe he thought it was a joke but I found it offensive.”
“It’s so exhausting,” she says. “If you told me a few years ago that I’d still be in the Old Convent [direct provision centre] I’d never believe you. I believed my papers were the only thing holding me back, that transitioning to housing would be easy.”
She believes the Government should have started preparing for an influx in asylum seeker arrivals when it launched the 2021 White Paper plan to end direct provision. “We live in an uncertain world; none of the Ukrainians had any inkling back then they would be refugees today. The Irish Government has a way of leaving issues to linger until it becomes a huge problem and then the people caught up in the situation get blamed.”
Asked whether a transfer exemption for lone parents was being considered, a department of integration spokeswoman said they were “very mindful of the disruption” of moving families with children or people who work locally.
However, the “severe accommodation shortfall for international protection applicants” means the department is experiencing “increasing pressure securing accommodation for arriving families”, she said. Transfers are being carried out to ensure accommodation in non-emergency settings is available to new arrivals seeking international protection, she said.
A “specific transition team”, which works with housing NGOs, government officials and local authorities, has been appointed to help residents with status find “other housing options”, she added.
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