More than twenty tents, home to homeless asylum seekers, made up the landscape along the Grand Canal on a Friday morning, merely a short distance away from where over a hundred such tents were removed a day prior. An understanding has been reached that the homeless individuals primarily consist of men who have been residing in Dublin for numerous weeks, including several who hail from Afghanistan and Palestine.
Several had been a part of the community by the Grand Canal but fatefully missed the buses that conducted men to dwellings in Crooksling and Dundrum, both located in the southwestern area of Dublin, during the early morning clearance of the previous day. These tents had been set up at the Wilton Terrace region, nestled between Baggot Street and Leeson Street towards the southern side of Dublin’s bustling city centre.
Not long before nine in the morning, a few men departed the vicinity in search of breakfast. Passersby largely overlooked the tents, but a handful stopped to capture pictures of the line of rudimentary shelters dotting under the trees.
Taoiseach Simon Harris mentioned on the previous day, after a drive relocated 160 individuals from the canal to various settlements, that the era of asylum seekers inhabiting tents on the streets of Dublin for extended periods had drawn to a close.
Provided with an information leaflet during the operation at 6 am on Thursday, these asylum seekers were informed that they no longer had the right to lodge by the canal, their tents could be confiscated and they could face legal action if they refused to vacate the tented communities.
The notice read: “You are violating the law. If you decline to accept the allocated accommodations or you decide to return to this area, you may be relocated by An Garda Síochána (Police) and face potential arrest and prosecution.”
Record-breaking numbers of asylum seekers, exceeding 30,000, are now being housed as the Government considers reassessing the aid provided to those not in direct provision. The total figure puts the accommodation statistic at 30,027 (an increase from 29,456 as of April’s end), with an additional 1,825 individuals awaiting state-provided accommodation, as suggested by the most recent data published on Thursday night by the Department of Integration.