CONCERNS HAVE been raised about living conditions at hostels for asylum seekers following the death of a woman and two still-born babies in separate incidents at a Galway centre last month.
Olufemi Johnson, a 43-year-old asylum seeker from Nigeria, collapsed and died at the Eglinton Hotel Galway, on the morning of May 13th. The Eglinton has been used as a hostel for asylum seekers in recent times.
Ms Johnson suffered from epilepsy and a friend living at the hostel claims she had asked to be moved from her bedroom, which she shared with three other people, because it was small and had too many sharp objects in it.
Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating the death of Ms Johnson, which is the second death in recent years of an asylum seeker to have taken place at the Eglinton Hotel. A coroner’s investigation is also taking place.
Figures obtained by The Irish Times show 46 asylum seekers living in hostels have died over the past 10 years. However, the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) does not compile official information on the cause of death in these cases. Last month a six-month pregnant Nigerian asylum seeker living at the Eglinton Hotel had a miscarriage and lost her twins.
In an interview with The Irish Times, the woman said she believed the stress of living in overcrowded conditions at the 235-bed hotel had contributed to the death of her twin boys. The woman claims she was forced to live in a small room with her daughter, another mother and her 1½-year-old son.
“I got headaches and there were fights with the other mother. I was scared and living in fear. I pleaded for another room but all my complaints were ignored,” she claims.
Management at the hotel has refused to comment on either of the cases. They also refused to allow The Irish Times to visit the hotel, which is privately owned by the Galway hoteliers Mary and Anne Flannery. Neither of the women returned telephone calls from this newspaper
In a statement the RIA said it was “satisfied that the Eglinton Hotel has delivered all services it has been contracted to provide”.
But non-governmental organisations, Residents Against Racism and AkiDwA, which represents African women living in Ireland, as well as local Labour councillor Neil McNelis, have expressed grave concern about the deaths at the Eglinton. They also called on the Government to change the way it cares for asylum seekers in its “direct provision” hostel system.
The RIA, an agency of the Department of Justice, contracts the Eglinton Hotel to provide a bed and meals for asylum seekers.
It is one of 52 direct provision centres, which were established in April 2000 as an emergency response to the growing number of people applying for asylum. A decade later almost 6,000 asylum seekers still live in the hostels, half of them for more than three years.
Rosanna Flynn of NGO Residents Against Racism said she had received numerous reports of overcrowding, bad food and dirty conditions at the Eglinton.
“I am very concerned because this is not the first death at this hostel and I feel it should be investigated properly,” said Ms Flynn.
In 2007 a South African woman living at the hostel died from complications caused by anorexia. She had previously requested a move to self catering accommodation.
Ms Flynn said it was impossible to know exactly what was happening at the hostels because of a culture of secrecy that prevails across the direct provision system.
“We are not allowed in to see what happens in hostels and so cannot verify what management says about conditions,” she said.
AkiDwA, which recently published a highly critical report on the direct provision system, said the stress of living at direct provision hostels, often for several years at a time, had a very negative impact on woman’s health.
“When compiling this report we saw a high level of miscarriages from women at centres, who complained about stress caused by overcrowding and problems with diet because they can’t cook their own food or eat outside designated eating times,” said Salome Mbugua, director of AkiDwA.