Sarah Harte: We must help asylum seekers and drop the ‘them and us’ mentality

It’s so easy to burnish your liberal credentials and sell yourself as a caring, moral person when you’re not personally fighting to get by

Tents, some flooded and collapsed, used by migrants and other people experiencing homelessness outside the International Protection Office during a period of snow in Dublin. Picture: Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire

Reports this week of two 17-year-olds sleeping in sodden tents outside the International Protection Office in Mount Street have been deeply uncomfortable to hear.

In human rights law, we are supposed to offer asylum seekers, food, medical care, basic hygiene, and accommodation as we examine applications for protection. It seems highly likely the Reception Conditions Regulations have been breached as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.