'I am in hell': Snow adds more misery for asylum seekers living in tents in Dublin

Asylum seekers' tents collapsed under the snowfall in Dublin City centre on Thursday night. Picture: Irish Refugee Council

A young man who escaped persecution in Afghanistan and sought asylum in Ireland has described living in a tent on the streets of Dublin as “hell”.

Ahmad Jan (22), was speaking after images of rows of asylum seekers' tents flattened by Thursday night’s heavy snowfall made national headlines.

The scenes outside the offices of the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) in south Dublin laid bare the harsh reality of sleeping rough in Ireland as the housing crisis worsens.

The latest figures from the Department of Integration, released on Friday, show there are now 1,103 asylum seekers in Ireland without accommodation.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner on Mount Street, asylum seeker Mr Jan said he has been living on the streets for the past 30 days, and that Thursday night was his worst yet.

“Every day it’s raining, and I am on the streets,” he said. “It is not good. 

I escaped from Afghanistan. I get out from hell and fall into another hell.

“I ask the government to help us. I have nobody. We are safe but I am in hell everywhere I go. We are human, I feel like they don’t care, I ask your country’s leader, you could not sleep on the street for one night. Come here and see this place."

Zen Montaser 26, from Libya said: “We are trying to survive this. It’s two days like this, and we are freezing. Everybody feels so bad, we are freezing, a lot of tents are broken.

“Nobody came to help, nothing. I am here three months, people are angry, stressed, and feeling bad. This is hard to believe they wait this long to help us. We are all angry. It is very depressing."

Another man Sami Kupiszewski 50, from Turkey said: “People are desperate and freezing, we feel so rejected. Sometimes it is just so harsh, and people can’t describe how bad they feel, nobody wants to live like this. People feel terrified."

Irish Refugee Council CEO Nick Henderson. File picture: Maxwells

The back of Mount St onto the adjoining Grattan Court East was heavily flooded on Friday, while the occupants of the tents were seen washing in the laneway which they also used as a toilet.

Bags of rubbish tied up nearby are not collected.

The CEO of the Irish Refugee Council told the Irish Examiner that the charity has been in touch with the Department of Integration a number of times about the issue at the IPAS offices.

Nick Henderson said: “Even before the cold weather we were extremely concerned about the situation generally.  The quality of tents is not acceptable. 

There are issues around refuse collection and access to toilets too and the tents have blown down with the snow.

He said there is no reason why temporary toilets and better quality tents could not be made available.

“Ultimately people shouldn’t be there. We believe there is enough capacity in the system to provide better shelter, but in the meantime until people are taken off the streets, we think that much more can be done to support them while they are there."

Mr Henderson said they received a letter on Friday from the government stating that the asylum seekers would be housed over the weekend.

“We met with IPAS last Monday to communicate our concerns and we’ve also written to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive this morning to suggest what could be done.

“We received a response from IPAS today [Friday] to say they would be trying to get officials over to Mount Street to take people’s details and have them moved over the weekend. That’s all we know for now.”