The Roma family living in squalor beside the M50 in Ballymun say their life is better here than at home, but the authorities are sceptical, writes Alison Healy.
A Roma man emerges from shrubbery in the centre of the busy M50 roundabout, up the road from Ballymun, in north Dublin. Lorries roar past as he beckons at The Irish Times across the two lanes of traffic.
He leads the way over a road barrier and down a muddy track, through broken trees and bushes. It leads to a ramshackle collection of makeshift tents, cobbled together with planks of wood and plastic sheeting.
Discarded election posters for Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin have survived the rain of recent weeks. A poster of the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, can be seen holding up the roof of one tent, while a Dessie Ellis poster is supporting a side wall of another.
The ground is mucky, with pools of water collecting in the centre of the encampment. Empty water bottles, discarded footwear and broken buggies are strewn in the bushes with other rubbish. In the midst of the chaos, a green vase of flowers sits incongruously on a locker in one tent.
This is part of the controversial Roma camp which has been home to some of the 32 adults and 22 children who have been living here since early May. Cars whizz by, aircraft fly overhead to nearby Dublin Airport and an occasional horn sounds as motorists warn the Roma off the road. If it were not for the handful of people begging on the roundabout, a motorist driving past would be unaware of the Roma camp beside them.
The rest of the group lives across the road, next to a two-lane slip road leading off the M50. All that separates this camp from the road is a grey barrier. It would offer no obstacle to the toddlers who are playing with an old bike just yards away.
A driver glances into the shrubbery as he waits at the junction and does a double-take when he sees the women and children behind the barrier.
There are no sanitation facilities or running water, and a child goes to the toilet in the corner while we speak to his parents.
There is no smell of food from the makeshift kitchen, where a packet of sugar sits beside a drum of salt.
The group, all part of the extended Rostas family, has become smaller in recent weeks. Three young children have now been taken into care, while a 63-year-old is being treated in hospital for liver and kidney problems.
Mariora Rostas sits with her head in her hands. Her six-month-old baby was taken into care last Friday after she was caught begging in the city centre. "She cries every day for baby," says George Dancea, director of the Roma Support Group, which was set up by Pavee Point Travellers' Centre.
"She no eating anything, just cry, cry for baby," he says. "When I see this it breaks my heart."
The youngest member of the camp is a six-week-old baby who came from Romania in recent weeks.
The conditions resemble a refugee camp but, when the people are asked why they don't take up a Government offer to be flown home, the answer is always the same. "I no want to go back to Romania. I die from the hunger in Romania," says Augustin Rostas. "Here I have somewhere where I can sleep," he says, gesturing at his makeshift shelter covered by a sheet.
"Never in my life would I want to go back to Romania," says Anton Rostas, father of a 16-week-old baby. "Never in my life," he stresses again. "This is nice here."
DEPENDING ON WHO you speak to, the plight of this Roma group is either a major humanitarian crisis or a cynical ploy to attract Government handouts.
Callers to radio stations had little sympathy for the group this week, with most people asking why they came here without work permits when they knew they were not entitled to State benefits and could not work.
While Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in January, their citizens do not enjoy the same rights here as citizens from other EU states. They must hold a valid work permit or be self-employed if they wish to work in Ireland. Nor are they entitled to social welfare payments, child benefits or a range of other supports such as emergency accommodation. The former minister for justice, Michael McDowell, introduced these restrictions to guard against so-called "welfare tourism".
The Rostas family told Pavee Point that they came from Tileagd in Bihor, north-west Romania. They said they had been living in mud huts, tents and makeshift houses at a rubbish dump. They had no family connections here already.
They said they thought they could get farm work here but, when this did not work out, they had nowhere to go. They first camped on the Swords Road but were moved on and ended up at the M50.
The Government has twice offered to fund their flights back to Romania, but they have not accepted the offer.
"Nobody is crazy [ enough] to stay in these conditions if they have a choice," says Dancea. "They don't need the Hilton Hotel. They just want one chance to work."
However, the Romanian embassy in Dublin questions the family's assertions. A spokesman says their claims that they had lived on a dump are "totally untrue". He says the embassy had been informed that the families had sold their houses to fund their trip to Ireland.
He also questions their claim that they did not realise the restrictions on working here. The Romanian government has been telling people about the situation in Ireland and they should have researched this before they travelled, the embassy spokesman says.
"They did not come [ to the embassy] for help," he says. But he adds that the embassy could do little for them except to encourage them to return home.
Pavee Point is calling on the Government to intervene and provide emergency accommodation for the group. This call is supported by more than 20 non-governmental organisations such as the Irish Association of Social Workers, the Conference of Religious in Ireland and the National Women's Council. But the Romanian Community of Ireland group warns against "quick solutions".
The group's chairman, Vasile Ros, says he feels sorry for the Rostas and is concerned about the children. But he adds that if the Government provides accommodation "they will be followed by many others looking for the same thing".
He wonders whether someone in Romania funded their trip as a test case to to see if the Government would help them. "This is how the Roma work. They will try to gain access. Give them a finger and they will take both hands."
He says the "legend" of the Celtic Tiger is well known in Romania and he has warned on radio there about the labour restrictions on Romanian people coming here.
Ros believes that the anti-social behaviour practised by some Roma people reflects badly on the 40,000-strong Romanian population in Ireland. "I feel embarrassed when I see them begging or looking in waste areas and bins," he says.
He has noticed that people frequently equate all Romanians with anti-social behaviour such as begging, credit-card scamming and ATM robberies. "But it's not right. We come to Ireland to work. We try to make a living honestly," he says. "But it's not a simple issue. It's very sensitive."
Pavee Point disputes the claims about anti-social behaviour, saying the majority of Roma people live law-abiding lives here. However, it accepts that people have concerns that thousands more Roma will follow. This must be dealt with at EU level, says Sara Russell, Roma coordinator with Pavee Point. She says the Irish Government must put pressure on the Romanian government to improve conditions for the Roma people so that they do not want to leave.
The Romanian embassy's scepticism about the group's claims comes as no surprise to Pavee Point, she says, as the embassy has not engaged with the issue. "The families told us they were living on the side of a rubbish tip in Bihor," says Russell, adding that a Roma politician was planning to send over photos to prove their story. "We can only go on what the people tell us and take it on face value."
CLAIMS OF AN influx of Roma to Ireland are a "distraction" from the real issue, according to the Irish Association of Social Workers. Its members have visited the site and assessed the situation, but they don't have the power to do much more. The families are in a legal limbo, according to spokesman Declan Coogan. He describes the families' living conditions as "deplorable and hazardous" and warns that someone will be injured by the fast-moving traffic on the roundabout. He urges the Government to step in on humanitarian grounds.
The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) echoes this call. Chief executive, Philip Watt says the Government should put pressure on its EU counterparts to set up a European taskforce to address the issues facing Roma communities.
But there has been only silence from the Government. A spokesman referred queries to the Department of Justice, which says the situation is being monitored.
Pavee Point chief executive Ronnie Fay finds it ironic that the Roma people have fewer rights now that they are EU citizens than they did before. They can no longer claim asylum here, but they cannot benefit from the rights and entitlements of EU citizens from other member states.
Fay says the problem needs to be tackled head-on at EU level. "In the words of a well-known politician, they are not going to go away, you know. The Roma will be here so it is important that the immediate needs are addressed, as well as the longer term needs."
In the meantime, children will emerge from the shrubbery on the M50 roundabout as motorists waiting at traffic lights watch them curiously. "Look at the children," says Dancea. "This is 2007. They have no education. They want only one chance. After 20 years, where will they be?"