Views of staff and residents are not to be found in inspectors' reports, but the picture that emerges is still bleak, writes Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, Migration Correspondent
What is absent is often most telling, and in some respects the reports on inspections of asylum seeker accommodation centres around the State are most notable for what they omit.
The most conspicuous absences are the voices of residents and staff members. On each inspectors' form there is a space marked "representations", where officials are invited to note any comments made to them by staff or residents during a visit. The space is empty in nearly all reports.
The Department of Justice counters that these inspections are concerned with the physical conditions of each centre, and says that the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) organises clinics to gauge the views of residents. However, the reports indicate the inspectors' reliance on the verbal assurances of managers.
In one, for instance, the inspector answers the question "has the issue of heating been discussed with residents?" with the following: "yes, all residents understanding [sic] the heating operation and time." Yet on another page he states that he spoke to no residents during his visit.
In general the reports show the RIA is satisfied that the centres are well run. However, one source, who has worked in a number of the hostels, says the inspection reports have missed some of their shortcomings. Conditions are often worse at weekends, the source alleges.
In some centres food is cooked on Fridays and reheated over the weekend; and toilets are not cleaned on Saturdays and Sundays. Only one of the 18 reports released to The Irish Timesrelates to a weekend inspection.
This reporter recently visited one large accommodation centre and heard a catalogue of grievances from residents. True or not, a number of them could not have been picked up by the inspectors.
For instance, residents complained that a family of five was living in a room that was far too small for them. It is an issue raised also by Deo Ladislas Ndakengerwa, of the Irish Refugee Council, who is concerned that there is serious overcrowding, as defined by the Housing Act 1966, in many hostels. But there is no question about overcrowding on the inspection reports.
Some concerns go further. One NGO worker says there is a "strong suspicion" among residents that some managers are tipped off in advance of inspections. But the department strongly rejects this.
"Under no circumstances whatsoever is any person, who works in or is associated with the centre to be inspected in any way, given any warnings or notice of an inspection," according to a spokesman. The documents also appear to confirm what advocacy groups have long said: that standards vary from one centre to another.
While the 133-bedroom Balseskin Reception Centre in Finglas, Dublin, was found to be operating "very successfully" and Globe House in Sligo is "a very well-run centre", an inspector who visited Viking Lodge in Dublin, for example, found that a fire door had been propped open and that mushrooms were growing from a corridor wall. He also observed shortcomings with cleanliness and decor in 26 out of 28 bedrooms.
Finally, the reports rebut some of the wilder allegations about the housing the State provides to asylum seekers. Conditions are basic. Buried amid the turgid officialese and the inspectors' tick-boxes, there are frequent reminders that these centres are not pleasant places to bring up a family or while away several years of a life of enforced penury and idleness.
In a routine entry on the form for Kilmacud House in south Dublin, which houses up to 90 adults and children, the inspector answers "no" to almost every question on recreational facilities. Board games are available, he writes, but there are no computers. There are no snooker tables, no video players and no table tennis. There are no newspapers and no books. "Other facilities provided? None."
When The Irish Timesattempted to enter Kilmacud House in recent days, a security guard said "Irish people" are not granted entry without permission from the manager. The Department of Justice yesterday turned down a request to take interior photographs of an asylum-seeker hostel.
