Local people have protested in their hundreds in East Wall after busses of migrants arrived in the area last night to occupy a former ESB building which has been reportedly repurposed for the new arrivals. There was no consultation with locals, the protest heard.
The protest, which blocked traffic for some time, heard that there is a lot of unease in the area due to the fact that the new migrants are all young men. When people enquired of one local TD on Thursday they were informed that the centre was for Ukrainian families, the protesters heard.
In common with a growing number of other areas from Killarney to Breaffy, locals in the Dublin City Centre area have expressed anger at the lack of consultation before migrants arrive – and they say that the new arrivals are not vetted and do not seem to be from Ukraine.
One local woman, Julie, expressed her disappointment that local TD Mary Lou McDonald had not responded to her request for information.
Journalist Alison O’Reilly said that a “massive protest” was taking place “over buses of adult male only refugees being housed in the old ESB building with no consultation.”
Locals say they want answers as to why “no women and children” refugees were moved into the area and that “adult unvetted males” arrived with no consultation. Protestors in East Wall have blocked the road outside building that housed refugees that arrived last night” #Dublin pic.twitter.com/Dgs0jA3C6L
— Alison O’Reilly (@AlisonMaryORE) November 19, 2022
https://twitter.com/Composite_Guy2/status/1593977921282052098
Organisers said that a far left group had planned to confront local people but apparently “thought better of engaging with actual working class on this occasion”.
A local woman told Gript that she would be afraid to walk on her own in a area where had lived all her life if the government “insisted on bringing hundreds of young men who were un-vetted, and many even without papers, to the area.”
As reported on Gript previously, thousands of migrants who arrived in Ireland in 2022 having destroyed their papers, or otherwise not having them, have been allowed to stay and are being treated as asylum seekers
Today’s protest was called after a local woman posted videos of busses arriving at the East Wall centre in the dark and “hundreds” of migrants arriving.
New " Ukrainians " bussed into Dublin's East Wall pic.twitter.com/cg1rmoKbP5
— Gaelic Data (@GaelicData) November 18, 2022
2nd bus load arriving in Eastwall, Dublin pic.twitter.com/00rcKezYpI
— Claire Keeley (@ClaireKeeley80) November 18, 2022
A local solicitor Malachy Steenson addressed the protest calling on the crowd to come back on Monday to continue the protest, He said that local people were not being consulted. Independent Cllr Nial Ring also spoke at the protest.
East wall says no pic.twitter.com/cVz19wqfPE
— DB81 (@duane81byrne) November 19, 2022
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