Yesterday, authorities launched a multi-agency operation to remove an encampment of 100 migrant tents from the banks of the Grand Canal. Less than 24 hours later, 30 tents have already returned to the area.
Yesterday morning, a joint operation was started by the Department of Integration, the Department of Justice, the Gardaí, Dublin City Council, Waterways Ireland, and the HSE to clear the migrant tent city that had been steadily growing to a high of 106 tents at the Grand Canal in Dublin since last week.
Thirty more tens have been pitched along the banks of the Grand Canal in Dublin, following the removal of over 100 tents in a multi-agency operation yesterdayhttps://t.co/XTqzrF0uHS
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 10, 2024
Metal barriers were erected by Gardaí on either side to prevent tent migrants from returning, and they were relocated on buses to be accommodated in other locations, such as the Crooksling site in the Dublin Mountains and the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum.
However, despite these efforts, 30 more tents have appeared further up the canal.
Reportedly, some of the tent residents refused to go to the assigned accommodation and board the buses yesterday.
“The offer of accommodation in IPAS centres is voluntary, and some applicants are understood to have not taken up a place at their assigned centre,” the Department of Integration said in a statement yesterday.
“IPAS will continue to engage with these applicants and efforts will be made to ensure these applicants do not continue to reside at the Grand Canal location.”
In the statement yesterday, the Department further said that it is a “criminal offence” to create such encampments.
“While the State has always taken a sympathetic approach towards International Protection applicants, it is nevertheless a criminal offence, in principle, for a person to pitch a tent on public land, or on private land without consent,” they said.
“Depending on the circumstances, for example, the person may be moved on, requested to remove their tent, or the tent may be seized if there is a refusal to remove the tent. Each case would be considered on their own set of facts on the question of a prosecution.”
Asked if the Department of Integration was paying for the tents going up in Dublin city centre, the Department replied: “[The Department] is funding homelessness service providers (Mendicity, Capuchin Day Centre, Tiglin, Crosscare) for provision of necessary basics which may include tents.”
This latest development comes just one week after a 200-strong tent encampment was cleared around the International Protection Office on Mount Street.
THIS MORNING: Mount Street tent city being cleared by Dublin City Council workers. A Garda told Gript that metal barriers were being erected under a Section 21 order of the Public Order act. pic.twitter.com/fvu26h14hH
— gript (@griptmedia) May 1, 2024
At that time, Tánaiste Micheál Martin insisted that the government had the power to prevent a similar situation from happening again.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said that "the State has within its power the capacity to make sure that we don't have tents back up on Mount Street", adding that the situation is "not acceptable for migrants" & that government has a "determination" to ensure it won't happen again. pic.twitter.com/jwLeNNnuBF
— gript (@griptmedia) May 1, 2024
Taoiseach Simon Harris also made similar commitments.
"We do not live in a country where makeshift shantytowns are allowed to just develop," Taoiseach Simon Harris has said, referring to asylum seekers in tents.https://t.co/t5HSzMBXh9
— Ben Scallan 🇮🇪 (@Ben_Scallan) May 1, 2024
Within days of this being cleared, the tents re-appeared just around the corner on the Grand Canal.
“It’s not a solution – it’s literally just moving the problem": Just days after the asylum seeker tent city on Mount Street was cleared by authorities, a further 50 tents have appeared just around the corner.
Gript spoke to locals about the situation:https://t.co/2L9tRWsqo8
— gript (@griptmedia) May 4, 2024