Documents released under FOI to a Gript reader detailing Garda calls in response to incidents or interviews at the International Protection Office (IPO) in Mount Street from 2023 to 2035 make for interesting – and sometimes startling – reading.
Amongst the incidents recorded are many instances of aggressive and violent behavior – and multiple occasions where gardaí flagged to IPO staff that male applicants who were scheduled for interviewed as part of the asylum process were before the courts for threats to kill, drug possession, and physical assault – and even for murder.
The IPO is responsible for examining and processing asylum applications for international protection. The Freedom of Information sought, amongst other things, to see any records related to notifications to the Gardaí in the period, in addition to Health and Safety reports, and security upgrades. Redacted documents were released in a part grant of the request.
Some 69 calls to Gardaí were logged in 2023 (24) and 2024 (45), while 18 incidents were logged in just the first four months of 2025.
Amongst the issues detailed were multiple incidents of “very abusive” behaviour from asylum applicants to IPO staff, with one male recorded as being “aggressive, banging the front door” and then urinating “on the step”.
Another asylum applicant became “very abusive” and told the IPO staff member that he would “get a knife, stab me and Irish people that he met on his way”. Gardaí “had to use force” to arrest that applicant, the incident log showed.
In another incident, gardaí were called to arrest an applicant who “became abusive and aggressive in the office” – while there were multiple call outs for Gardaí to come and remove male applicants from the office when they refused to leave.
Four gardaí were required to handcuff and “physically restrain” a male asylum seeker who was at first “shouting and banging the gates” and then “banging his head off the barriers and then the wall and ground.” He refused assistance from ambulance staff, and “Dublin Fire Brigade had to be called to sedate him”. It was noted that gardaí and ambulance staff “had concerns about drug use” in this case.
Gardaí were also called in one 2024 incident where an asylum applicant was “lying on the ground outside refusing to get out of the way of traffic, shouting for cars to run him over.”
When one asylum applicant was “having his health assessment done he became very aggressive” and “reached under the counter and grabbed one of the HSE’s staff’s phone. He then made a call to 999 and was irate with them. He was in the room and blocked the door so no one could go in and he was refusing to come out.” Gardaí were called as were the public order unit, to remove the man who was arrested.
Asylum applicants before the courts
Occasions when gardaí contacted the IPO ahead of an applicant interview were also recorded, including warnings that an asylum seeker is “aggressive and violent in their behaviour” – or in another case that the asylum seeker had “come to the adverse attention of AGS on several occasions”.
Most seriously, gardaí relayed to IPO staff on multiple occasions that asylum applicants – all male – were before the courts on serious charges, including murder and threats to kill.
“Applicant has been arrested and charged with murder”, was one such message relayed to IPO staff in March of this year, while another applicant in that period was also before the courts charged with theft and public order offences.
In February of 2025, gardaí notified the IPO of two asylum applicants due to be given interviews in Mount Street where “both were involved in serious altercations in the accommodation including physical assaults and serious threats to kill staff”.
In the same month, an asylum seeker was due in for an interview relating to his application who “is before the courts for possession of drugs and knives also death threats to a staff member in the IPAS centre”.
Human sacrifice
IPO staff were additionally informed in March 2025 that an asylum applicant “claimed in his application form that he was part of a religious cult .. which practises human sacrifice and he was present”. (Some words were redacted).
Some information – including a lengthy message from Store Street – was redacted under the part-grant of the FOI request. Concerns regarding human trafficking were also relayed.
While most of the garda callout incidents involved make asylum applicants, gardaí were also called for female applicants, including one who was “very abusive” to staff and interpreters, saying “you’re only good to clean my toilets” in addition to saying she hoped the IPO staff member would “get cancer and rot to death”.
The incident log also details “a lot of issues” in relation to tents and protests in 2024, and “a lot of Garda presence, general presence etc” because of same. In 2023, it was noted that gardaí were “notified of journalist out side the office asking staff questions”.
Very little of this startling and dangerous behavior by asylum applicants at the Mount Street office or in asylum centres gets reported unless FOI requests are made. My thanks to the reader who undertook this task and sent in the response. These insights are invaluable in building a more complete picture in regard to the changes that are happening to our country.