*Photograph: Liam Burke / Press 22
A HANDFUL OF asylum seekers have left Magowna House less than twenty four hours after arriving while the youngest in the group of males has said they had “no choice” in moving to Inch.
On Monday evening, a bus load of thirty four male asylum seekers arrived in Inch to take up residence at Magowna House, a three star hotel which has been closed since 2019 with questions remaining over whether it has a legitimate fire certificate and on the sewerage systems in place according to Inch locals.
Before lunchtime on Tuesday, four men left the facility and stated that they were returning to Dublin.
Ali Andilahi Maaci is the youngest of the men now living in Magowna House, an Inch family living in close proximity to the hotel had pinpointed him as a friendly individual as they continued their rota of shifts in keeping both roads to the accommodation centre closed off for local access only.
Seventeen year old Ali has been living in Ireland for five months having travelled from Somalia. “It was Turkey to Greece and Greece to England, in Germany the language would be very hard to learn but English is very easy,” he said of his journey.
Asylum seekers were not told when they boarded on bus on Monday evening where they were going and only that it was a two and a half hour journey. “I have no choice, it is not my choice, here is not good because I have no school, no doctor, no PPS number or no job, I don’t have anything,” he outlined.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Ali admitted that he did not sleep on Monday night. “Yesterday we came here but I haven’t been able to sleep but it is good now, the Gardaí have come in”.
He added, “It’s a problem because I do not know what it is like here or where everything is but this is not my choice, if I had to sleep here (points to the ground) I would stay here”.
Of the first arrivals, they are residing in three holiday homes on the grounds of the hotel. “It is good, the house is good, I can shower,” Ali said of the conditions. “I don’t have another place, if I had another place to go I would but in one month I will be homeless, in July we would have nothing, no home, no hotel, I would end up sleeping on the ground but now is good”.
