Migrants evicted from Dublin ‘shanty town’ arrive at tent encampment

Hundreds of migrants evicted from a ‘shanty town’ in central Dublin have arrived at a tent encampment outside the city amid an ongoing row with the British government over immigration. The asylum seekers had been sleeping rough beside the city’s International Protection Office, where they set up makeshift accommodation around the building. When the tents were taken down this morning, the migrants were brought to Dublin’s Citywest hotel and a site in Crooksling, where authorities had erected hardy makeshift accommodation with proper toilets and sanitation facilities. In a statement, the Irish Government said that the people seeking international protection had been moved safely to the two sites. Around 1,700 asylum seekers are believed to be living on the streets in Ireland after crossing the border from Northern Ireland, with some expressing their fear that they could be sent to Rwanda by the UK government if they had stayed.

A slew of videos circulating on social media showed how officers in hi-vis jackets this morning bundled up tents as the migrants filed onto a string of coaches dispatched to Mount Street. A truck-mounted crane was even deployed to tear the canvas structures away from the pavement and deposit them into a skip – or pull them into the street where officers could squirrel them away. Rishi Sunak yesterday declared he is ‘not interested’ in taking back migrants from Ireland given that the EU refuses to take back Channel migrants who arrived from France – a sharp response to senior Irish ministers who warned they would draft emergency laws to force refugees back to the UK. It comes as migrants who were living in the now dismantled Dublin tent city yesterday thanked the Prime Minister for refusing to allow them back to Britain – because they ‘don’t want to go to Rwanda ‘.

A Government statement given this morning outlined details of the removal operation, which involves officials from various government and judicial departments including the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Justice; An Garda Siochana; Dublin City Council; the Office of Public Works; and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). ‘The Crooksling site has robust, weather-proof tents,’ the Irish government said in a statement. ‘It has toilets and showers; health services; indoor areas where food is provided; facilities to charge phones and personal devices; access to transport to and from Dublin City Centre; and 24-hour onsite security. ‘While in Crooksling accommodation, residents will receive the same supports as at other locations.

‘This includes access to medical care via the HSE social inclusion outreach teams and medical card provision; Ipas customer services team clinics; onsite support from the provider’s staff; and psycho-social and integration support from NGO partners. ‘The encampment at Mount Street has been dismantled and the streets are being cleaned by Dublin City Council.’ For weeks the migrants had been camping on Mount Street with no access to sanitary facilities, telling reporters they were forced to use an open toilet in the corner of the camp. A large group of the migrants were moved to another location in south Dublin earlier this month but later returned because the conditions there were reportedly even worse. Now the authorities have dismantled the camp, having loaded the asylum seekers into coaches that shuttled them to new sites. Government sources told the Irish Independent that Gardaí will be tasked with ensuring the tents do not return to the city.

The operation got underway at 6.30 am this morning when officers descended on the tent city and began ushering occupants into the street. Buses arrived just after 8 am and began loading migrants on board ahead of their transfer to the temporary accommodation. The coaches were flanked by police cars to ‘ensure the safe movement’ of the asylum seekers. The police escort and the security teams who will be stationed at the migrant accommodation sites at Citywest Hotel and Crooksling are of paramount importance amid a series of anti-immigration protests and demonstrations, some of which have turned violent. Several buildings earmarked to house asylum seekers in Ireland have previously been surrounded by protesters. One factory set to host migrants in Coolock in north Dublin was taken over by disgruntled demonstrators, and several others have been subject to arson attacks in recent months as the Irish public voices its displeasure with the rate of immigration.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who recently alleged that more than 80% of migrants in Ireland are coming in via Northern Ireland to avoid deportation to Rwanda, said that the government must ensure a tent city does not return. ‘Once people are moved, measures will be put in place to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. ‘When they are provided with that accommodation, it’s also really important that we don’t see scenes like we’re seeing now at Mount Street again, that it cannot re-emerge, that we have hundreds of tents – not just outside the international protection office – but outside people’s homes, outside people’s businesses.’ Deputy Irish premier Micheal Martin said this morning’s operation was to ensure the ‘safe movement of people’ who are seeking asylum, but warned that the government would not let the tents return.

‘The tents on Mount Street are not acceptable, not acceptable for migrants and not acceptable for residents living in the area either,’ he said. ‘We don’t envisage them returning. The state has, within its powers, the capacity to make sure we don’t have tents back up on Mount Street or other streets and in our view the Government is very clear that we can’t have tents in streets adjacent to neighbourhoods. ‘There is a determination on the Government’s side to use capacity and powers to ensure that it doesn’t occur into the future.’ Irish politicians have in recent weeks voiced alarm that large numbers of migrants are taking advantage of the invisible border with Northern Ireland, flooding south into the Republic to avoid being deported to Rwanda under new Tory plans to mitigate the impact of immigration. Taoiseach Simon Harris has vowed to pass new laws to facilitate returns of migrants, after the country’s courts declared the UK cannot be classed as ‘safe’ due to the pact with the African state.

But the UK Government earlier this week said it would ignore any law passed by Ireland, with a No. 10 spokesperson declaring: ‘Even if Ireland was to pass legislation, it is up to the UK Government to decide who it does or does not accept into the country. ‘We are not going to start accepting returns from the EU, just as France doesn’t accept returns from the UK.’ The Republic remains part of the European Union , which has blocked British attempts to resolve the Channel crisis with a returns agreement to France. The spat comes as Home Office figures show more than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the journey – a new record high for the first four months of a calendar year. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said that the fact that people were fleeing the UK for Ireland was an indication the Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent.

Meanwhile, asylum seekers living in Dublin’s ‘tent-city’ told MailOnline that option was preferable to being sent back to Northern Ireland and possibly Rwanda. Abdul, a 24-year-old who spent seven months to get from Afghanistan to Northern Ireland, said it was ‘not fair’ that he was forced to travel down to Dublin to avoid being sent to Rwanda. The married father-of-two told MailOnline: ‘There is a word – humanity. Everyone needs to be a human, we are humans. We have a problem in our country. I got here today from Northern Ireland.’ When asked why he had come down to Ireland, he said: ‘Rwanda – I think this is not good. Our country we are in the [expeltive]- they are trying to apply their policies and rule on us. ‘We also want to have a normal life, get [an] education or get medical facilities and all these things. ‘This is the reason – everyone knows about Rwanda. The corruption and the situation in Rwanda – it is a very backward country. There are no facilities.

‘Their people are also crying. We feel better here.’ Meanwhile, a Nigerian migrant named Otumba told MailOnline he’d decided to make his way to Dublin from Belfast because he knew what was going to happen. ‘I came to the UK. I wanted to seek asylum. Then five weeks ago we heard that the Rwanda Bill is going to be passed, and we don’t want to go back to Africa. ‘(Rwanda) is not an option. It is not safe. Africa is like a volcano that can erupt at any time. ‘We decided to go to Ireland on information that Ireland is safer and more accommodating. We had an idea about what was going to happen, so you don’t take chances.’

Otumba, in his 40s, arrived in the UK four months ago after flying from his home in Lagos, Nigeria, on a six-month tourist visa. He intended to claim asylum when his visa expired because he faced ‘persecution’ back home. After spending time in London, Leicester and Northampton, he took the train to Birmingham, where he then flew to Belfast before quickly taking a bus to Dublin. He continued: ‘In Belfast, it was a gateway to Ireland, we came straight here, we don’t waste time. We wanted to get out of UK and we don’t want to get caught. We just hopped in the bus.’ Otumba, who described himself as a political refugee and alleged he was being hunted by men in Lagos, described the Rwanda Bill as a ‘racist’ and hopes Mr Sunak will ‘lose the election’.

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