As Irish households begin to take in Ukrainian refugees, reports are emerging of alleged tension, arguments and disputes between hosts and guests.
According to one TippFM report, an Irish host woman from Tipperary was forced to ask a Ukrainian woman to leave after witnessing behaviour she described as “odd.”
The Irish woman said that the guest began going on multiple dates with strange men within days of arriving, alleging that the guest was “meeting men for money” at the host’s front gate.
A Tipperary woman shared her story as a cautionary tale.
— Tipp FM (@TippFM) March 29, 2022
“Within days, the woman was going on multiple dates and strange cars were pulling up at the local woman’s home leaving her uneasy and uncomfortable,” Tipp FM reported.
The Ukrainian woman was allegedly planning to leave her young daughter in the house on her own while she was otherwise engaged.
The women who had opened her home said that she was told by neighbours that the Ukrainian was being picked by different men while she was out at work.
“She didn’t get much of an option I told her that she had to pack her things and go,” the woman said according to the TippFM report.
“And I explained that really meeting them at my gate and giving them my address was nearly as bad and really there was no place for that in my house.”
“The attitude was quite shocking, I mean she saw no problem with it.”
The woman added: “There’s a lot more complexities than just bringing someone into your home. There will be issues. It’s bringing two different families together – there’s different personalities, cultures, all that sort of thing. As well as what happened to me, which is also a possibility. So we need to protect Irish families as well as the refugees – there’s room for issues on both sides of this.”
The woman urged host families to only accept Ukrainian refugees through formal channels like the Red Cross.
Additionally, the Irish Examiner reported that at least one Ukrainian woman has urged refugees to use official channels to find accommodation after she says one Irish host family “extorted” her and threatened her with deportation.
'Treated like a servant and threatened with deportation': Ukrainian woman's host family experience https://t.co/Yh1zGGyZbo
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) March 26, 2022
In the Examiner report, the woman claims to have met a family who seemed kind through a Facebook group, as there were significant delays in accessing accommodation through the Red Cross.
The woman told the Examiner that while she was happy to help around the house, the host mother eventually began to order her around, eventually coming home and shouting at her that the house was very unclean.
“She asked me ‘do you live like this in Ukraine?’ I was very angry, but I was scared to talk against her. It was her home.”
Ultimately, after the host couple reportedly had an explosive shouting match which left the Ukrainian guest’s daughter and the host children in tears, the refugee woman attempted to leave, at which point she was allegedly dubbed “ungrateful” and threatened with deportation.