Irish Refugee Council calls for transfer of 68 children from Citywest due to 'very serious concerns'

Citywest Hotel in Saggart, Co Dublin. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

The chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, Nick Henderson, has called for the immediate transfer of 68 children from the City West refugee processing centre.

Mr Henderson told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that the Council has “very serious concerns” about the children who are in a “shared environment” with 700 adults with very limited play facilities, washing and toilet access.

The Council wrote to the Government on December 1 recommending that children and families be moved immediately from City West. The Refugee Council also called for the closure of the centre in the long term, but Mr Henderson acknowledged this would have to be done in a phased manner.

Mr Henderson said he believed it was possible to find alternative accommodation for the children and families as had been done recently for refugees staying in tents.

“A huge amount of work” was being done by the Department of Children and staff at City West, he added, they were “vital cogs in the refugee response mechanism”, but no follow up had been carried out to proposals for an inspectorate for facilities.

There should not be any moves to exclude emergency accommodation from the scrutiny of a future inspectorate, he urged as that was where children were most at risk.

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O'Gorman TD.

In a letter sent to Minister Roderic O'Gorman, Mr Henderson raised concerns about conditions at the hub. The council had visited the site on November 11 and identified "grievous risks".

It said that the risks posed to children in particular "should be the most urgent concern" for the department and wider Government.

"In our opinion there exists in Citywest a risk of harm to children, owing to a total lack of privacy in terms of accommodation, the co-mingling of unrelated adults and children and the lack of experienced and trained child protection personnel on the ground," the letter read, RTÉ reports. 

The letter draws attention to the fact that the shower facilities on site are not segregated by sex or age, which it said was "extremely inappropriate".

The letter also detailed what it described as "chronic overcrowding".

Figures released in a response to a parliamentary question asked by Independent TD Catherine Connolly showed that this day last week, 68 of the 764 international protection applicants being accommodated in Citywest convention centre were children.

The original bed capacity at the centre was 370.

On Friday, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said the Citywest Transit Hub would be closed to processing new Ukrainian refugees from 24 to 27 December.

The Ukrainian Ambassador to Ireland, Larysa Gerasko, confirmed she would be advising Ukrainians not to travel to Ireland until mid-January due to shortages of accommodation.