*The tents in Knockalisheen. Photograph: John Cooke
USE OF TENTED ACCOMMODATION FOR asylum seekers has ceased outside the village of Meelick and across the country, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has confirmed.
Alternative accommodation has been found for more than 80 male asylum seekers who had been living in army tents during sub-zero weather conditions outside the Knockalisheen Direct Provision Centre.
None of the men slept in tents on Sunday night and by Monday morning all of them had been moved. Four different locations had been sourced with Clare County Council, Limerick City and County Council plus Mid-West Simon involved in this effort.
Clare County Council assisted with securing accommodation for the 30 of the 80 men left in the tents.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne, Minister Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman (GP) confirmed, “We’ve been able to move everyone out of the tents”.
Similar facilities in Westmeath and Kerry have also closed, he said, “All our use of tented accommodation has ceased”.
Current arrangements are not permanent but no return to tented accommodation is envisaged, “For some of them they will be shorter-term solutions but we will not be using the tents in Knockalisheen again”.
Minister O’Gorman pointed out that less than one percent of the total accommodation used in emergency measures was through tents, “we use tents because of the tightness of accommodation at the time”.
Graham Clifford, founder of Sanctuary Runners Ireland, a solidarity through sport movement bringing together citizens, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees said the use of tents was deplorable. “Over the years we’ve seen it all in relation to Direct Provision. Cramped conditions, oppressive centres, inedible food, awful communication, deterioration of mental health, deaths. But keeping people in tents in freezing temperatures is lowest point. Shameful”.
