Family of 10 refugees from Syria are first to arrive in Ireland
The parents and their five girls and three boys fled IS-controlled areas of the war-torn country and landed at Dublin Airport last night, after flying from Athens, Greece. Health support, schooling and linguistic help will all be arranged for the young family, particularly to aid the children who are all aged under 11.
“These people have fled war and destruction. Having spent two years in refugee camps in Turkey, the family are absolutely exhausted. They’ve displayed huge resilience,” said a source familiar with their arrival.
The family’s arrival is part of an EU scheme aimed at relocating some 160,000 asylum seekers fleeing Syria and Iraq among places — 2,600 of them will be accepted in Ireland. The numbers are separate from several hundred asylum seekers who will be brought here under a UN programme from refugee camps in Lebanon and elsewhere.
An extremely low take up of the EU relocation scheme for refugees who have already arrived in Italy and Greece among places, has resulted in fewer than 30 applicants applying for permission to live here so far.
The Syrian family will stay at an emergency centre in Leinster before moving to more permanent housing by early spring. A process of registering them for assistance payments and asylum application is expected to begin next week.
The EU relocation scheme has stalled after the low take up, with many migrants arriving making their own way to host countries, rather than registering in entry states in the Mediterranean.
