Ombudsman: Protestors shouting 'get out' frightens already-scared refugee children
Dr Niall Muldoon said: "All they (children) know is there are people standing outside their door, shouting ‘get out’, having sometimes fled horrific scenarios." File picture: Niall Carson/PA
Far-right protests should stop hijacking the housing crisis and stay away from direct provision centres where vulnerable children are living, the Children’s Ombudsman has said.
Dr Niall Muldoon said that children fleeing terror abroad have arrived in Ireland to have protestors gather and shout “get out” outside their temporary homes here.
“It’s a terrible situation. They’re fleeing death, war, murder, and they come hoping for help, safety and calm.
“As children do, they take it personally. They don’t know about far-right, far-left. All they know is there are people standing outside their door, shouting ‘get out’, having sometimes fled horrific scenarios."
He said the far-right is hijacking legitimate concerns from some community members about homelessness and lack of housing.
“We need to address those legitimate concerns and disavow the far-right on their use of it," he said. “They should not put children – any child – even locals – in a situation where they feel fear. That should not be allowed. We know that 95% of our country is open to people coming in from terrible, terrible backgrounds.
“We’re meant to be the safe haven. They should be getting nothing but peace, joy, calmness and welcome. I have no problem with protests but make it away from where the children see it and feel it.”
The Citywest transit hub has temporarily closed to new adult international protection applicants seeking emergency shelter due to an acute accommodation shortage, potentially leaving hundreds of asylum seekers homeless over the coming days.
Dr Muldoon called for local authorities to “step up” and urgently provide sites that can be used to quickly erect hundreds of modular homes to mitigate the crisis. “We need to start building modular, like we promised to do," he said.
"The local authorities need to step up and provide the Minister for Children with sites where they can put, 200/300/400 modular units which in turn, if you build them right, could also be useful for homeless or domestic refuges. We need to use this crisis to produce infrastructure for the future for all of our citizens.
“But it needs to happen now, the local authorities have not stepped up enough to give opportunities to build these, they have not stepped up enough providing vacant, derelict houses. And the Minister for Children needs a whole-of-Government support around him to make this happen.”
