The Irish Refugee Council has said that there are “grievous risks” to women and children at one of Ireland’s biggest asylum centres.
The NGO has further called for children and their families to be removed from the Citywest Transit Hub, and for the centre to be closed on a phased basis due to what they say are dangerous conditions.
In a letter to Integration and Equality Minister Roderic O’Gorman and his Department, the CEO of the Refugee Council said that there were serious risks to those who are “in the care of the State, specifically women, minors, and those with specific vulnerabilities.” The letter further added that the living conditions at the centre “represent a clear and obvious breach of the Reception Conditions Directive.”
“In our opinion there exists in Citywest a risk of harm to children, owing to a total lack of privacy in terms of accommodation, the co-mingling of unrelated adults and children and the lack of experienced and trained child protection personnel on the ground,” the letter read, adding that shower facilities were not segregated by age or sex. The letter said that this arrangement was “extremely inappropriate.”
“We witnessed two minor children queuing alone for the showers together in a line that included adult men,” the group claimed.
The letter also described “chronic overcrowding” at the facility, which the Council says is a risk for individuals’ privacy.
“The convention centre hall sleeping area contains a mix of hospital beds, camp beds and mattresses on the ground,” the letter said.
“These areas are open-ended wide corridor-like rooms that while broken up into ‘single male’, ‘single female’ and family rooms are each interconnected. Many beds touch each other, with no space between residents, posing a risk to privacy, personal safety and health in terms of infectious disease.”
They added: “We do not believe…that this accommodation meets people’s ‘basic needs’.”
The letter finishes by saying that “the Citywest convention centre hall is not suitable for accommodation of people,” calling for the facility to be closed.
In addition, Ireland’s Ombudsman for Children, Dr. Niall Muldoon, claimed that “reports of unsafe living conditions for children at Citywest are extremely concerning and require immediate action to protect the children involved.” He added that “even in times of crisis, standards for children can never drop,” and that he would be speaking to TUSLA and the International Protection Accomodation Service (IPAS) about the matter.