A HUGE multi-agency operation is taking place to tackle Dublin’s ‘tent city’ today.
The operation is under way to move people out of Mount Street as they have been living in tents along the footpaths for weeks.
Tents are moved from outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street this morningRollingNews.ie
A major operation is underway to clear the Dublin streetRollingNews.ie
The operation is being carried out by the Department of Integration, the Department of Justice, Gardaí, Dublin City Council, the Office of Public Works and the HSECollins Photos
The Gardaí, HSE and Dublin City Council are all reported to be involved in the operation, according to RTÉ.
Asylum seekers have been sleeping on the streets, with Mount Street particularly affected, in recent weeks.
They began sleeping rough outside the International Protection Office on the busy street following the Government’s decision to stop providing State accommodation to international protection applicants.
A section of Mount Street has now been closed off this morning to pedestrians and traffic due to the operation.
There is also a large garda presence and at least five buses parked close by, as well as reports of a number of people seen to be packing their personal items.
This is the second time the tents have been removed from Dublin’s city centre.
It was first reported that the tents had been removed in the lead up to St. Patrick’s Day.
At the time, the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar denied any claims that the Government had moved hundreds of asylum seekers sleeping in tents out of Dublin city.
Hundreds of asylum seekers who had been sleeping in tents on Mount Street in the city centre were put on buses the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day and moved to a site in Crooksling, Dublin.
The tents that they had been sleeping in were quickly removed and the street cleaned up.
This sparked claims that the Government had moved the asylum seekers to clean up the city’s image ahead of St Patrick’s Day when tens of thousands of tourists will be in Ireland for the festival.
Asked if the asylum seekers and tents were moved to avoid embarrassing his government on St Patrick’s Day, the Taoiseach said: “No, the reason why they were moved to essentially that there wasn’t any sanitary facilities there were no showers and toilets on Mount Street, as I think you’ll know.
“So the alternative in Crooksling had that, so it was to move them really for health and safety reasons from a place where there was no facility somewhere there is.”
This comes only a day after Taoiseach Simon Harris said that once asylum seekers who are sleeping rough are given accommodation, the encampment would not return.
Harris was responding to Labour leader Ivana Bacik’s comments in the Dáil saying it was “absolutely scandalous” that the vacant Baggot Street hospital site was not being used despite the tent city situation.
The Government claims there’s an agreement with the UK, agreed in 2020, that would see asylum seekers who applied in Britain and travelled to Ireland sent back to the UK — and visa versa.
Harris said the UK and Ireland have an agreement in place which he believes they will honour.
He added: “What I am very well aware of is not allowing this country to become a pawn in any politics in the UK.”
Minister McEntee yesterday got approval from the Cabinet to draft new legislation to let Ireland return asylum seekers to the UK if they travelled here via the North.
However, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has already said his government has no plans to take back asylum seekers from Ireland.
His government passed new laws that would see them sent to Rwanda for processing, and Tanaiste Micheal Martin believes the policy is partly why so many asylum seekers are leaving the UK for Ireland.
Rishi Sunak has said he is “not interested” in agreeing a deal that would see Ireland send asylum seekers back to the UK that have come here via Northern Ireland.
The claim has put Ireland and the UK on a legal collision course amid plans from Justice Minister Helen McEntee to pass laws aimed at enabling the Government to send asylum seekers back to Britain.
Last week, Minister McEntee told the Justice Committee that up to 80 per cent of asylum seekers in Ireland may have entered the country from the UK by crossing the border in the North.
Following Brexit, Ireland designated the UK as a “safe country” which meant that the Government could technically send asylum seekers back to Britain for processing if they came here.
However, in March of this year the High Court ruled that this was unlawful because of the UK Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Minister McEntee says she plans to address this High Court ruling by introducing new legislation that would enable Ireland to send asylum seekers back to the UK.
However, the issue has now sparked a diplomatic row between Ireland and the UK with the two Governments at odds over the issue.
Asked if the UK will do a deal with Ireland to see migrants crossing into the Republic from the North, the UK PM said: “We’re not interested in that.
“We’re not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland when the EU doesn’t accept returns back to France where illegal migrants are coming from – of course we’re not going to do that.”
The Prime Minister’s comments have not deterred Justice Minister Helen McEntee who will still push ahead with new legislation this week aimed at sending asylum seekers back to the UK.
COLLINS PHOTOSAsylum seekers have been sleeping on the streets in recent weeks[/caption]
Tents housing asylum seekers near to the Office of International Protection, in Dublin� 2024 PA Media, All Rights Reserved Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
