'You feel anti-immigrant sentiment is getting worse. But it’s always been there'

Harsh reactions to asylum seekers are amplified by social media but have been there since Ireland first took refugees in the 1950s, writes Imasha Costa

Derek Blighe at an anti-asylum seeker protest in Fermoy where about 70 people attended last year. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

"People forget that seeking protection is legal and a right for people. We have been reminding the Irish people, especially those that seem to have forgotten their history. They left this country when it was not good for them.”

Those are the words of Lucky Khambule who was born in South Africa but spent years living as an asylum seeker in a direct provision centre in Cork.

He co-founded the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) in 2014 and helped organise a strike by direct provision residents in Cork over restrictive rules around eating times and access to supplies such as toiletries.

They took over the centre, locking the staff out for 10 days. The strike ended when the residents' demands were met. MASI was founded by asylum seekers for asylum seekers and advocates for those living in direct provision and seeking asylum in Ireland.

Mr Khambule was also one of the central activists on the campaign to allow asylum seekers in Ireland to work.

In 2002, asylum seekers were frequently referred to as “spongers, freeloaders, the people screwing the system”. In 2023, that sentiment remains, only this time, it’s amplified across social media websites, including but not limited to Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram groups led by anti-immigrant activists.

Well before the advent of social media, the idea that asylum seekers were profiting from the system had taken root in Ireland, through phone-in radio, newspapers, and even leafleting campaigns.

Lucky Khambule, of the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland, speaks at an an anti-racism rally in 2019. "People forget that seeking protection is legal and a right for people." Photo: Niall Carson/PA

Rumours about migrants and asylum seekers got so bad that a national leaflet campaign to challenge the myths and misinformation being circulated was launched by the UN Refugee Agency and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) in 2007.

Cork City councillor Dan Boyle told the Irish Examiner that the idea of coming into the country to get social welfare is and was a “mythology”. “In fact, [asylum seekers and migrants] never qualified for social welfare, and the rate paid to migrants is shamefully frozen for decades and decades,” he said.

In the leaflets, it showed that the numbers seeking asylum in Ireland had significantly decreased. By the end of 2006, there were 8,500 refugees. It also tackled offensive labels that have been applied to asylum seekers, with claims of being “bogus” and “work-shy” and that they are just out there to “abuse and exploit the welfare system”.

At the time, asylum seekers were housed in accommodation centres across the country, where they received food and a small cash payment of €19.19 per adult or €9.60 per child each week. The same situation broadly remains, though the payment has increased to €38.80 per adult and €29.80 per child.

The leaflet also pointed out that “asylum seekers are not entitled to go on public housing lists” and “neither asylum seekers nor refugees receive free mobile phones or cars from the State, as some inaccurate reports have suggested”.

Liam Thornton, an associate law professor at University College Dublin (UCD) told the Irish Examiner that at the time, “asylum seekers were seen as responsible for diverting State resources away from the more destitute Irish people”.

He has researched and published papers on the immigration system and asylum seekers in Ireland since 2005.

Magowna House hotel in Inch, Co. Clare, where locals protested against the arrival of refugees in May. The protests go on for five days before ceasing on May 20 following a discussion with 100 residents in Kilmaley. Photo: Liam Burke/Press 22

“This narrative of people coming here to take our welfare, is a key trope in the past 23 years,” he told the Irish Examiner. “It was created by the Irish media, something that is not original and that was imported from UK media.”

Some newspaper reports as far back as 20 years ago suggested that officials were concerned about social welfare fraud among asylum seekers. However, then secretary general of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, Tim Dalton, said the idea that the Department of Justice was “investigating the possibility of major welfare fraud by asylum seekers” came from the media.

This same tune is being heard today from the far right who have labelled migrants and asylum seekers as those who profit from the social welfare system. Protests and blockades are being carried out more frequently.

Despite a huge rise in protests against asylum centres, Gardaí have denied there is any growth in the far right, taking what they are calling a “strategic” approach involving community policing and not directly confronting protesters.

Joanna Dukkipati, who moved to Ireland from India nearly 15 years ago and is now an Irish citizen, believes anti-immigrant sentiment “was always there” but is amplified by social media.

“It was always this way… and I always say that about any social injustice issues, any denial of human rights. All the bullshit that is happening across the world has always existed. What makes you ask the question ‘has it gotten worse?’ is because more of this stuff gets reported.. So then you feel like it is getting worse. But it’s just always been there.”

While counter-protesters have begun to challenge the anti-migrant narrative, Ms Dukkipati says those who are most affected are not inclined to get involved — it’s safer, she says, to keep your head down and focus on survival.

Miriam Raja has taught her children “to walk away” from any potential conflicts. Picture: Cian O'Regan

Miriam Raja, a South African refugee who was granted status in Ireland in 2019 but previously lived in direct provision centres in Dublin and Cork, says she has experienced some racism in Ireland but that, on the whole, she has had a very positive experience here. She would not shy away from attending counter-protests, she says, but her hijab can make her a target.

She has taught her children “to walk away” from any potential conflicts, but adds, “As a parent, as a mother or even as an individual, I do fear for these things, because things can get ugly in a second.”

Ireland’s history with immigration is often said to have begun during the Celtic Tiger years, but in fact the first refugees to come to Ireland were Hungarians fleeing Soviet tanks.

The 20th century saw waves of migration and people claiming refugee status. In 1956, when Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest to crush the Hungarian uprising against the country’s communist regime, Ireland took in 541 refugees from the tens of thousands who had fled overseas.

They were housed in Knockalisheen — today, the site of a direct provision centre — and while an initial Red Cross fundraiser did well, within six months 145 Hungarians were on hunger strike over the poor conditions and the public turned against them.

Following the military coup d’état in Chile in 1973, a total of 99 Chilean refugees arrived in Ireland between 1974 and 1975. And in 1979, the Irish government agreed to take in 212 ‘boat people’ who were fleeing the communist regime in Vietnam.

Refugees from Bosnia were taken in in 1991 and a small group of Kosovans in 1999, following the Yugoslavian war.

However, the Celtic Tiger years saw a huge increase in people claiming asylum in Ireland. In 1992, there were only 39 applications for asylum, however, by 1996 this figure went up to 1,179 before rising again in 1999 to 7,724. It peaked at 11,634 in 2002 before dropping back to 7,900 in 2003.

At the height of this, the government produced a plan to create a system that would help tackle the basic needs of people who were awaiting decisions on their applications for international protection.

Direct provision, initially designed as a short-term measure in 2000, was modelled after a similar system in the United Kingdom which, according to Mr Thornton, “failed badly”.

Fast-forward 23 years and direct provision is still present, though the Green Party had had plans to end the system by 2024 and to establish a new International Protection Support Service as part of their commitments in the Programme for Government.

A note for information was given to the Government on the increase of arrivals of asylum seekers in a memo circulated in 1999. 

This followed a recommendation from the inter-departmental committee suggesting that because the “extra accommodation required is not available in Dublin and, even if it was, it is not desirable to have an over concentration of asylum seekers in one area as they may be accommodated at the expense of the indigenous homeless. It is essential that additional accommodation is identified and sourced throughout the country.”

The recommendations included that for the next six months at least, there should be adequate accommodation available in tourist B&Bs, guesthouses, hostels, self-catering units, and hotels.

The same document also noted that the rise in recent years in the numbers of “non-nationals coming here to claim asylum or to work and study has also seen an increase in the incidence of racism and xenophobia”. It argued that these attitudes could easily become rooted, with profound consequences and that there was a need to counter racism, including attacks on immigrants.

Following the introduction of direct provision, and the influx of people claiming asylum in Ireland, the government started sending people into various hotels, B&Bs, etc. — dispersing them across the country instead of clustering them in one place, which was Dublin at the time.

According to Lucky Khambule, there were pushbacks when direct provision was being set up, with anti-immigration sentiment very much present.

“It’s not new what you see now, the very people that are affected, vulnerable, stateless, got no medical support of any kind, are the ones suffering,”
he said.

“We have been reminding the Irish people, especially those that seem to have forgotten their history. They left this country when it was not good for them. In years back, they left this country and sought refuge and some of the people made those countries their own.

“The fights of the Troubles, the times of the Troubles. The times where the forefathers of this nation fought for unity, fought for peace, fought for freedom for all. They did not say they are fighting for specific freedoms, they fought for this country.”

Mr Khambule said it is sad to see protests and attitudes being allowed “in terms of hate, in terms of the intolerance, in terms of what people don’t like about other people. Because they look different than them”.

Immigration in Ireland: A timeline

2000

April 26, 2000, Clogheen, Tipperary: Some residents of Clogheen react badly when news emerges that the government is going to house 38 asylum seekers at a 10-bed hotel.

The community tells reporters they are not racists, but that they do not want the new arrivals. 

A fire-damaged bedroom at the Vee Valley Hotel in Clogheen, Co. Tipperary, where it was planned to house refugees. - Picture: Kieran Clancy

A 24-hour picket is held until the residents’ demands were met.

The story hits international headlines after the hotel goes on fire the night before the asylum seekers are set to arrive. Locals condemn the arson attack.

May 2000

Kildare town: There is a meeting against the decision to house a further 400 refugees in addition to the 300 Kosovars already living there.

Tralee: There are angry complaints about the lack of consultation as 37 more asylum seekers arrive in the Kerry town.

Rosslare, Donegal and Corofin, Co. Clare: Protests take place in all these towns over plans to house refugees.

2001

Gardai investigate racist websites including Say No to Black Ireland.

2002

Cork — January 2002: Cork TD Noel O’Flynn stirs up anti-immigrant rhetoric, saying: “We’re against the spongers, the freeloaders, the people screwing the system. 

Too many are coming to Ireland and too many in Cork in my view. 

"In the past five years, there have been 35,000 applications for asylum and 80% of those have been from illegal immigrants using the refugee system to get in.”

According to the Sunday Business Post, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had warned his parliamentary party earlier that year not to meddle with the immigration issue.

In 2002, Noel O’Flynn said about immigrants: “We’re against the spongers, the freeloaders, the people screwing the system." Picture: Dan Linehan

Individual Dáil candidates told the newspaper if they attempted to defend asylum seekers and more liberal immigration laws, they would lose votes. O’Flynn was re-elected, topping the poll at the 2002 general election. He retained his seat in 2007.

Tralee, Co. Kerry — August 2002: The Irish Examiner speaks to a Nigerian woman who is living in fear in Co. Kerry after receiving hate mail.

Lara Olukumle who lives in Tralee describes receiving a series of hate mail letters. One includes a threat to shoot dead pregnant African women living in Tralee. A fictional name is used as a signature in each of the letters, according to gardaí.

2003

Media reports quote an internal Department of Justice memo showing that in August 2003, the masters of Ireland’s maternity hospitals warn that pregnant women are arriving in Ireland from abroad with their “antenatal notes”.

“Citizenship tourism” becomes a prominent part of the Irish lexicon.

2004

A Citizenship Referendum is proposed by Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell. It’s supported by Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats, and Fine Gael and opposed by the Green Party, Labour Party, and Sinn Féin — 1,427,520 people vote to limit what had been an automatic right to Irish citizenship by birth. The new law is introduced on June 24, 2004.

Cork city councillor Dan Boyle, a TD between 2002 and 2007 said the Green Party “always argued that Ireland could and would only benefit from as open as an immigration policy as possible and part of that should be informed by Irish history”.

“The Celtic Tiger, I think, released a few changing attitudes in Ireland — increasing individualism, a greater attachment towards — this could be seen as a positive or negative thing — the business of wealth creation and at the same time a reduction in values that would have been predominant when we were a less prosperous country.

Dan Boyle: “The Celtic Tiger, I think, released a few changing attitudes in Ireland." Picture: Jim Coughlan

“But there was never really a political dimension to second-class citizenship for people who were born here.

“Parties on the right worried about the perception, and quite cynically proposed the citizenship referendum, both in the way to enhance their own electoral appeal and protect their electoral flank. That would be my theory about it.

“Because there certainly hadn’t been a demand for it and I think the justification for it was still quite spurious.”

Mr Boyle had a “personal animus” as to what was being proposed with the bill.

He said:

I am the child of Irish emigrants. I was born in the United States, I have birth right US citizenship which hundreds if not thousands of Irish people have benefited from.

The referendum campaign sees anti-immigration groups mobilised across the country, including the Immigration Control Platform, which had been set up by Cork woman Áine Ní Chonaill in 1998.

A leading member of the group Pat Talbot, tells the Irish Examiner in 2004 that “mass immigration and multiculturalism has been forced on this community, but you were never asked about it”.

2006

Direct provision centres begin to close as some asylum seekers whose claims are still being determined have established residency based on having an Irish child, and no longer need to live in centres. There is less discussion around direct provision as the numbers wane.

“There was a drastic increase, I suppose, in direct provision centres being established between 2003 and 2006/7. And then in 2006/7, they started closing,” explains Liam Thornton.

“That was why there was a reduction in the number of people seeking international protection.

“And so, you had no government discussion on the system of direct provision between 2006-2010 and that’s where the kind of memorandum was in relation to a protest at Mosney.”

In 2010, asylum seekers living in the biggest direct provision centre in Ireland, with 800 residents, protested over being moved from Mosney.

Up to 130 people protested in support of the asylum seekers, over plans to move 111 people to other centres around the country.

2018

Protests against new asylum centres become more visible and widely reported in Irish media. The numbers seeking protection start to increase.

Moville, Donegal - November 2018: A hotel that is earmarked for 100 asylum seekers is set on fire. It is understood that the fire was started deliberately.

Moville has a population of about 1,300 people and at a public meeting locals express concerns about the impact of another 100 people on the town.

2019

Roosky, Co. Leitrim — February: A similar incident takes place in Roosky, on the border of Co. Roscommon and Co. Leitrim, where the Shannon Key Hotel is to receive 82 refugees. Gardaí say the fire is premeditated and carefully planned. There is evidence of forced entry to the hotel by breaking a window in a patio door. It isn’t the first fire at the hotel.

Oughterard, Co. Galway — September: The largest ever protests against a proposed direct provision centre, sees blockades night and day for three weeks. 

Direct Provision protesters outside the Gateway Hotel site in Oughetrard, Co. Galway. Photo: Hany Marzouk

Approximately 3,000 people attend round the clock protests at the former Connemara Gateway hotel.

Achill Island, Mayo — October: Another 24/7 protest begins on Achill Island the following month, continuing for six weeks. It is the longest-running protest yet against a direct provision centre. Residents say the location is too remote and lacks services. Plans to accommodation asylum seekers in Moville, Roosky, Oughterard and Achill Island are dropped.

Ballinamore, Leitrim — October: Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny’s car is set ablaze in the driveway of his home after he condemns local protests in Ballinamore, where an apartment complex is earmarked for 130 asylum seekers. During the covid pandemic, between 2020 and the start of 2022, things quietened down. But that was only temporary.

2022

In February 2022, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia sees an unprecedented level of emergency immigration, primarily from Ukraine, but there is also an increase in refugees from other locations.

The Department of Integration (DCEDIY) sets up transitional shelters for refugees from various backgrounds.

East Wall, Dublin — November: Protests begin in East Wall on November 10-11, as news breaks that an office block, the former ESB building, will be turned into a refugee centre.

Concerns are raised over the lack of information given to the people in the areas, the potential overcrowding of children’s facilities, refugee welfare and the lack of women and children in the initial group.

However, some residents describe the protests as “embarrassing”. The protests quickly becomes an excuse for far-right groups to promote Euroscepticism and extreme forms of Irish nationalism. They lead to a week-long blockade at Dublin Port Tunnel.

Several hundred residents of the East Wall area protesting last year about the use of empty office buildings in the area as temporary housing for refugees. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

“The current narrative that we are seeing is the same as ever,” says Liam Thornton. 

“It is always the same MO — we are not racists, but we do not have enough services in the area. That has been the key narrative since the late ‘90s and or early 2000s.

“What we see now, and what we certainly didn’t see in the 2018/19 protest, this kind of focus on military aged men, indoctrinating those narratives that are well established within fascist and neo-fascist circles.”

Fermoy, Co. Cork — November 29: Demonstrations similar to those in East Wall are instigated by anti-immigrant protestor Derek Blighe. The protests — against the housing of refugees in St Joseph’s Convent — are attended by about 70 people in the town. Blighe claims that the up to 70 Ukrainians there are not from Ukraine and says they are all single men.

The community organises a counter-protest, Rally Against, showing support for the refugees and aiming to discredit and distance the local community from the first protests.

The last few months of 2022 saw an increase in media reporting about anti-immigrant protests as well as concerns raised from locals.

According to Liam Thornton, the trope of refugees being a threat to the Irish welfare state has been imported from the UK and US, “then being adopted by government, resulting in the establishment of the direct provision system”.

“There is a natural follow on then to these persons being a threat to the welfare of the state or a threat for women… and so it’s part of a much larger narrative and discourse that has been going on for the last 20 years and is becoming much more expressive and visceral in its language, in the last 18-24 months and possibly a little bit more than that.”

Kill, Co. Kildare — November 6: Protests and a meeting in a local GAA club are held by a group of locals over an equestrian centre being earmarked for development as a transitional shelter for 350 refugees. The protests pass without incident, but later that day a fire breaks out in a shed in the rear of the centre.

Leinster House, November 20: The Kildare protesters take a motorcade to the Dáil.

2023

Gardai say there are 73 anti-immigration protests in Dublin alone in just eight weeks at the beginning of 2023, but deny any growth in the far-right.

January 2023

• Drimnagh, Dublin — January 3: Between December 23 and January 3, Ukrainian refugees stay at Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School while it is empty during the holidays. However protesters mistakenly believe their occupancy is permanent and that school children will be unable to return to it. A protest takes place outside the building, but the Ukrainians have already left when the protest begins. One woman is charged with public order offences.
• Ballymun, Dublin — January 8 : Protests are held outside a Travelodge hotel in Ballymun where 221 international protection applicants are being housed.
• Athy, Kildare — January 12: A ‘national day of action’ for the far-right ends in one court appearance. Former dissident republican Stephen O’Rourke is arrested after he threatens to burn down a hotel housing refugees in Athy. He is ordered to stay 500m away from the hotel and warned to stay off social media following a court appearance.
• Fermoy, Cork — January 19: A plainclothes garda is assaulted after being questioned by an anti-refugee protestor. It happens on Oliver Plunket Hill, with a video quickly going viral.
• Mallow, Cork — January 25: Protests are held by locals who say there was no prior consultation in relation to a plan for modular homes for Ukrainian refugees.
• Ashtown, Dublin — January 28: A group of men arrive at a migrant camp of 15 tents with four dogs on the banks of the Tolka river. They shout at the terrified migrants to “pack up and get out now”.
• Sherrard Street, Dublin — January 30: Rawlton House on Sherrard St is set ablaze following rumours circulated locally that it is going to be used to house refugees. An arson investigation is started by gardaí.
• Lismore, Waterford — January 31: Protests against the conversion of a vacant hotel into a direct provision centre see over 300 people show up in the street in front of the Lismore House Hotel. It had been shut since 2016. Organisers claim the protest is not against housing refugees, but against the use of the previously listed heritage building.

February 2023

• Finglas, Dublin — February 1: 200 people protest against immigration outside Finglas Garda Station. The Garda public order unit attends in riot gear and 1km of the street is closed off.
• Tallaght, Dublin — February 2: A protest of about 50 attendees in Cookstown is met by counter protestors. There is a similar one in Clondalkin.
• Mullingar, Westmeath — February 2: 300 people protest against the use of Columb Barracks. The Government plans to shelter 120 people in tents on the grounds.
• Cootehill, Cavan — February 18: 80 people demonstrate against what they call the government’s housing of “illegal immigrants on an industrial scale”.
• Grand Parade, Cork — March 4: Gardaí have to separate anti-migrant and anti-racism protesters after hundreds of people gather at the city centre for two separate demonstrations. It leads to minor altercations between the two groups. Around 700 people are said to be in attendance.
• Mullingar, Westmeath — March 24: Protestors block the entrance to Columb Barracks. They stop a bus carrying asylum seekers from entering the premises at around 1pm. A number of Garda units attend and remain at the scene until the next morning.

May 2023

• Cork — May 8: A small group of anti-immigration protesters takes a video of African Presentation Brothers visiting Cork’s Mount St Joseph’s headquarters in Cork City, circulating this as “unvetted males of military age” online. The protesters are condemned by the order’s head and by local TD Mick Barry.
• Upper Sandwith St, Dublin — May 12: Video of an anti-immigration group entering and attacking a refugee camp begins circulating online. The following day, pro- and anti-immigrant groups face each other outside the camps. Later that day, gardaí and fire service have to be deployed to the area after the tents are set on fire.
• Inch, Clare — May 15: Tractors and cars move into a blockade at the entrance to Magowna House in Inch to protest a coach carrying 33 male international protection applicants to be housed in holiday homes there. Hay bales are also used as part of the blockade. The protests go on for five days before ceasing on May 20 following a discussion with 100 residents in Kilmaley.

July 2023

• Ballincollig, Cork — July 21: A group wearing balaclavas is seen smashing up to eight windows and attempting to set alight to Gaelscoil Ui Riordain, earmarked for Ukrainian accommodation. Gardaí are alerted and two units of the fire brigade put out a minor fire. Tánaiste Micheál Martin echoes councillors’ condemnation of the events.