Minister invited to assess conditions of blind and elderly Ukrainians at disused equestrian centre

Oksana Zhukovska said she is further away from her part-time job, and it costs her €10 a day to get the bus in and out each day.

Calls have been made for the justice minister to visit a disused equestrian centre in Co Kildare where Ukrainians are being housed.

A local councillor has said vulnerable Ukrainians who are being housed by the State should be assessed individually for their needs as changes are made to Ireland’s offer of accommodation.

Ukrainian nationals who are blind, receiving cancer treatment, are elderly, and who have serious mental health conditions are among those who have been told they need to leave the Citywest Hotel in Dublin before September 18.

They have been told by the Department of Justice if they refuse new offers of State accommodation, they will be “discharged from our systems".

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan and minister of state Colm Brophy, who has special responsibility for migration, have been asked to visit the accommodation at Kill.

“The accommodation sounds like it’s falling short in many respects of what you would expect even the most basic accommodation to be like, particularly (for) people with disabilities and medical needs,” councillor Joanna Tuffy said.

“(The department officials) should go and look at it, the minister should go out and look at it and should start trying to look at the people individually and look at what their needs are and — in so far as possible — address those needs.” 

Several concerns have been raised about the conditions of the centre at Kill, including accessibility for elderly people who use walking frames, facilities for cooking and for children to study, and cleanliness.

Oksana Zhukovska, 33, said she has had to apply for new school places for her children, Karyna, 13, and Sofiia, 8 but has not yet received a place for them.

She said she is further away from her part-time job, and it costs her €10 a day to get the bus in and out each day.

“They are upset because they left their friends and teachers in Dublin and school has stopped,” she said, speaking through an interpreter. “I’m very upset because these conditions are not appropriate for children, for elderly people and for vulnerable people.

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“I moved from Ukraine because of the war and I brought the children here — my husband is fighting on the front line — but what kind of conditions are these?” 

One mother was in tears as she explained how she shared a room with her adult son, who has a serious mental health condition, while another woman said she shares a room with her 24-year-old son Illia, who has autism.

“He asks me every day when we will leave this place,” Olexandra Pavona said. “The first night I couldn’t sleep. I am stressed and my son is stressed.

She said:

I was reading that prisoners must have a table, must have a window, must have a sink in their room. Maybe we just want the same as prisoners.

Valeriia Pakhomova, who is also staying at the centre in Kill, said the ministers at the Department of Justice should see the conditions for themselves.

“Do they want to push disabled people and pensioners out of the country?” she said. “Their actions show that this is precisely what they want. 

"It’s especially vile that the ministry started doing this when other EU countries have closed their support programmes for newcomers.” The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.