Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that “huge numbers” of single male asylum seekers are continuing to present themselves in Ireland despite the state being “no longer in a position” to offer them accommodation.
Speaking on Morning Ireland this morning the Taoiseach said that last week saw “over 500” new claims made and that this was the largest figure for quite some time.
Responding to the figure of 1,103 men who the state has not provided accommodation for Varadkar said that unprecedented numbers were arriving in Ireland due to the “push factors” more so than “pull factors” were driving the numbers.
“I don’t think we should forget the context here. You know, we used to have a situation up until 2019, where between maybe 3,000 and 10,000 people arrived in Ireland every year seeking international protection.” he said.
“Because of the war in Ukraine, because of what’s happening in other parts of the world, because of conflict, governments collapsing, climate change, injustice, poverty, we have accepted over 100,000 people into our country in the past two or three years, providing accommodation for almost all of them.” he said.
He said a number of those unable to avail of state provided accommodation had found accommodation among their“family networks” and “friendship networks” in Ireland saying that there were “certainly many dozens if not hundreds” who had nowhere to stay.
Commenting on the government’s plan going forward to accommodate high numbers of international protection applicants and Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection from Ukraine the Taoiseach said, “But there’s barely a week or two that passes that we don’t open a new accommodation centre,”.
“The real struggle that we’re having at the moment is just to keep up with the numbers that are coming in. And the numbers are very, very significant and part of what we have to do is better controls at our borders and we’re doing that, turning around decisions more quickly so that those who are entitled to status get it and those who don’t are asked to leave the state,”.
Varadkar said that while 38 – 40% of those claiming asylum were “genuine” the majority were not genuine claims.
The Taoiseach said that numbers released by the Department of Integration which said that some 5,000 beds designated for asylum seekers and BOTPs from Ukraine were vacant are “misleading”.
He said that this was because it was usual to have a certain number of beds unoccupied and that in cases where a family of five were occupied in a unit meant for six people, the sixth bed was marked as being vacant.
Turning to the D-Hotel in Drogheda which was recently announced to be closing in order to house in the region of 500 international protection applicants, the Taoiseach said that it was his “preferred outcome” that the hotel split its services between accommodating asylum seekers and housing tourists.
He said a town the size of Drogheda “needed” a hotel and that the government should move away from taking over hotels and student accommodation to accommodate BOTPs and asylum seekers and instead move towards establishing dedicated accommodation centres.
“I think it shows why we need many new reception centres. And it also shows why we need to move away from the practice of taking, you know, the main hotel in a town out of use or existing student accommodation out of use.” he said adding that this “ will be a feature of the white paper which will come to government.”
Speaking of the situation where the state is no longer able to accommodate the numbers coming in he said, “ it’s not so much the absence of a policy or the absence of coordination that is making this so difficult. It is just a very large numbers coming in.”