The Central Hostel in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, is set to house 42 single male asylum seekers, it has been reported.
The Clare Echo reports that the West Clare town will see the international protection (IP) applicants housed at the 16-room hostel, which is located close to the centre of Miltown Malbay.
The local newspaper said it has learned that the premises are to come into use for housing international protection (IP) applicants “in the very near future” – with an exact date yet to be specified. An asylum seeker, who is formally referred to under the Irish system as an IP applicant, is anyone who makes a claim for international protection – meaning any individual, including an economic migrant, can make such a claim and enter the system.
The paper reports that the hostel, which had not been used to provide tourist accommodation in the lively Clare town for a number of years, had been closed as a temporary Direct Provision Centre back in August 2020 by the Department of Justice, and came under new ownership in April 2023.
It is understood that a 12-month contract will be offered to the provider of the hostel, which can accommodate 42 people in 17 rooms.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has confirmed that an agreement has been reached in relation to the Central Hostel, according to Clare FM. Gript has contacted the Department for comment.
Clare FM reported on Tuesday that while the resident breakdown will be for single males, the briefing document seen by the radio station says it is not possible to “say with certainty” what the length of stay will be. This, it says, is because of the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland and the lack of alternative accommodation.
The arrivals “will be provided with a full board service, three meals a day and snacks included, with other essentials, such as toilet paper, replenished as needed , while fire alarms, fire-fighting equipment and security cameras will be fitted throughout the common walking areas,” Clare FM reports.
It is understood those arriving will be eligible to work in Ireland after six months, with the majority being new arrivals into the country.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, told Clare FM that the property is owned by Tralprop Limited, who will be operating the site with staff on-site 24 hours a day, with a manager and/or security staff present at all times. The Department said that most of the staff will have worked at the premises for many years – which operated as a bar, restaurant and accommodation.
However, this is the first time that the provider has provided accommodation to international protection accommodation survives (IPAS). The Department told the Clare news station that the centre management team in IPAS have developed and rolled out, initially as a pilot scheme, a training programme for all centre managers to take part in, which will be offered to the provider.
The Department also stressed that international protection applicants will be able to access health services through mainstream services: primary care, GP and emergency services. Any IP applicant residing in IPAS accommodation is entitled to a medical card, they added.
The Department, answering questions directed by Clare FM, said that initially, an IPA will be accommodated in an IPAS temporary accommodation centre for “the purposes of orientation, information provision, voluntary health screening, needs assessment and assistance with the first stages of asylum applications”, before being sent to a longer term centre depending on individual circumstances and centre capacity.
“They will receive three meals per day in the centre or, where there is independent living facilities in place that allows people to cook for themselves, they will receive food vouchers to purchase their own food in local supermarkets,” it added.
The news that the coastal town, famous for its traditional music scene, is to take on new refugees, comes on the heels of recent backlash and protests across Clare over immigration into the county.
In May, protests garnering international attention erupted in Inch, Clare, after a group of 34 asylum seekers were accommodated at Magowna House Hotel in the rural village. Tractors and cars were used to cause a blockade outside the hotel, after locals expressed upset that their requests for information in the weeks before the bus arrived were stonewalled, and that they were not consulted.
Others expressed safety fears and pointed out that the hotel was deemed unfit for Ukrainian refugees last year.
In May, it was also announced that 77 refugees were to be placed in Scariff in Clare, with the county having one of the highest numbers of Ukrainian refugees across Ireland – with the number estimated to be over 3,000.
IRISH ASYLUM CENTRE CONDITIONS ‘CRAMPED AND UNDIGNIFIED’
It also comes amid revelations of “cramped and undignified” living conditions at a number of Irish asylum centres. Yet to be published inspection reports from State health watchdog Hiqa, recently obtained by the Sunday Independent newspaper, detailed poor living conditions at three asylum centres where staff were not garda-vetted, and where there is little room or privacy for residents to change their clothes.
Hiqa, which is set to undertake inspections of accommodation centres later this year, looked at three centres in counties Kerry and Cork on a pilot basis, subsequently reaching the conclusion that all three failed to meet national standards, the Independent reports over the weekend.
“Residents forced to stand on beds to get dressed in overcrowded bedrooms, children with no space to do homework, babies’ buggies damp from being stored outside and staff not garda-vetted,” the paper writes, describing the damning content of the reports.
The first inspections of accommodation centres since the asylum seeker accommodation crisis exploded, leading to widespread protests and international media coverage of the escalating debacle, are set to take place later this year.
However, the State agency’s initial inspections of centres have already uncovered a multitude of issues, which appear to stem from overcrowding and poor governance.
The report also outlined how many of those living at the temporary accommodation facilities ended up remaining there because they felt they could not leave as they had nowhere else to go.