Asylum seekers at the Mosney accommodation centre in Co Meath who have been issued with transfer orders have been told they will not be forcibly removed.
Hundreds of residents staged a protest today to try to prevent the transfer of 111 residents to different hostels across the country.
The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), an agency of the Department of Justice, issued the transfer orders last week. The first bus arrived at the former Butlins holiday camp this morning to begin taking people to new accommodation.
Buses will also depart from the centre tomorrow and Thursday.
Sue Conlan of the Irish Refugee Council informed the residents they would not be taken to new accommodation against their will following mediation talks with the RIA.
However, the agency is insisting that 111 people will still have to leave Mosney as those operating the centre are no longer in receipt of payment.
Some of the asylum seekers have been told they must move to Hatch Hall in Dublin or to other hostels around the country. At a demonstration against the transfers yesterday many of those who are due to be moved said they would refuse to go.
Between 150 and 200 people gathered at the front gates of the accommodation centre to protest. Asylum seekers were joined by representatives from the Socialist Party and a number of support agencies including the Irish Refugee Council and Residents against Racism.
"When you are here in Mosney you get a little house to yourself and you can decorate it and have a home. I'm not getting on the bus, I want to stay here," said Lucy, an asylum seeker from Ghana. "I am worried they will stop our food here and put our stuff on the street, this is what I'm worried about," she added.
Children held up banners asking for the Department of Justice to reconsider its decision to relocate asylum seekers. "We don't know what the future holds, we are in limbo," said one of the placards.
Benedict, a former resident at Mosney, said she had come to the centre today to support the protesters. "I have my papers and I'm living in Drogheda but I wanted to come here to show solidarity. They shouldn't be moved. Some people have been here for up to five years."
The Department of Justice has lowered the number of asylum seekers it plans to move from 150 to 111 since last week. But it said yesterday it would not back down and people would have to move to the hostels.
“There is severe financial pressure on the Government and the Department of Justice has a duty to act in the best interests of taxpayers,” said a spokesman for Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.
A value-for-money audit found savings could be made by transferring some of the 800 people living at Mosney to direct provision hostels, mainly in Dublin.
The Government does not allow asylum seekers to work while waiting for their claims to be determined. Instead it accommodates people in direct provision hostels where they get a bed, meals and €19.10 a week to live on. This system costs about €90 million a year and has been targeted for cutbacks by the Government.
“It is obviously disruptive for those moving but there are no families or children involved. These are all single people affected,” said the Minister’s spokesman.
One of the biggest complaints from the 111 people who have been issued with transfer orders is the lack of consultation about their future.
“I’ve been moved from hostel to hostel ever since arriving in Ireland in 2004 and I’ve never had a choice. First I was in a Dublin hostel, then Galway, Mayo, Limerick, Athlone and finally Mosney,” said Amran Abdalla, a Somali who joined yesterday's protest.
“I’m not being moved because I have two children but the single people living here help us a lot with the children.”
Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins, who also attended yesterday's protest, appealed to Mr Ahern to stop the compulsory relocation of asylum seekers, who had built up support systems and friendships. He also called on the Government to speed up decisions in asylum cases in the interests of “humanitarian concern”.