Protestors demand Government action over asylum seekers sleeping rough in Dublin

Over the weekend, up to 200 asylum seekers from all over the world were moved to a makeshift campsite in Crooksling in south Dublin. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

A protest has taken place at the Department of Integration over conditions that homeless asylum seekers are living in just a short distance away.

A group of around 70 demonstrators gathered this evening to call on the Government to take urgent action over those living rough on Mount Street.

Over the weekend, up to 200 asylum seekers from all over the world were moved to a makeshift campsite in Crooksling in south Dublin.

However, due to the conditions there, as well as threats from anti-immigration protestors, some have started to move back and around 40 tents have been erected again at the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) offices.

Speaking to the crowd on Mount Street, volunteer Róisín McAleer, who has been supporting those on Mount Street, said: "We are not celebrities, we are not VIPs, we are nobody. In the last two weeks with trojan work from people who don’t have connections, we managed to put the international protection office and the racist institution system on the radar nationally and internationally.

“Collectively I’ve always said, we are stronger together. One of the most important things for me personally was learning to understand what the asylum process is like for asylum seekers. 

"I thought I had an idea but you have to sit with someone for a long time and listen and shut your mouth and listen to the people who know.

"When people come here and say what can we do, I urge you to listen, with your ears open to the stories.

“They are the experts — the asylum seekers who know the process, unlike us who were born in this progressive country."

The normalisation of cruelty has been happening for 20 years, homelessness is now the new norm, she claimed.

The crowd chanted “refugees are welcome here” and “stand up and fight back”.

There was a heavy garda presence throughout the two-hour protest which saw the demonstrators march from Mount Street to the nearby Department of Integration on Baggot Street.

They called for Minister Roderic O’Gorman to step down, claiming he has failed the asylum seekers.

The latest figures show there are now 1,323 asylum seekers without accommodation.

There are tents emerging all over Dublin. Mount Street has become known as "tent city" because the occupants believe they are safer living outside the offices of IPAS.

Another speaker to the assembled crowd, Stephen Roche, said there is “no such thing as an illegal immigrant”.

“The right to claim asylum is not a crime. It is a human right” he said. 

“Every single one of them have been registered here at the international protection office, they carry a blue book. It is not their fault that it often takes years for the Irish asylum system to process their claims.

“It is the responsibility of this Government to treat them with care while that happens."