Speaking on DriveTime Fiona Hurley of Nasc – the Irish Immigrant Support Centre said Ireland has not only national, but international obligations to house unlimited numbers of migrants.
The comments came as it was announced that a further 200 migrants will be housed in a tent village (which is to be constructed over the weekend) in Lissywolen Athlone.
Notably, the current number of migrants living in the area was not mentioned.
Hurley claimed that Ireland is not accepting higher per capita numbers of ‘asylum seekers’ than other European countries, although perhaps unsurprisingly, RTÉ did not ask her to back up her claims with any actual evidence.
At Gript we are always happy to lend a helping hand in sharing available data. So let’s see if official numbers are reflective of Hurley’s claims.
Gript recently published a breakdown of how many Ukrainian refugees Ireland is accepting per capita: Niamh Uí Bhriain writes, “using the data from the UNCHR against the population of each country under examination, it’s easy to calculate the number of Ukrainian refugees per 10,000 people for each country.
Thus far, Ireland has taken 83 Ukrainians per 10,000 people.
That number for the United Kingdom is 14 – so they have taken in 14 refugees from the Ukraine per 10,000 of the population.
France has also taken 14 Ukrainians per 10,000 people.
Italy’s per capita intake is 24 per 10,000, while Spain’s is 27.
So this small island has taken in almost six times per capita the number of Ukrainian refugees as Britain and France, both countries with significantly larger economies.
Ireland has also taken in far more per capita than Spain – and more than three times as many as Italy.
We’re also streets ahead of Norway – 38 refugees per 10,000 people – and of Slovenia which has taken 34 per 10,000 of its population. And we are well ahead even of Belgium and Romania – both 44 refugees per 10,000 of their populations, and even ahead of Denmark who at least chalk up 54 per ten thousand.
The conclusion is that Ireland is taking far more people per capita than many larger countries with bigger economies.
Hurley wasn’t specifically referring to Ukrainians though, so perhaps it is appropriate to look at the figures of non-Ukrainian ‘asylum seekers’ arriving on our shores.
Dr. Matt Treacy writes that the highest number of such arrivals are not in fact coming from conflict zones at all, and therefore – common sense would dictate – should not be entitled to asylum seeker status.
“Of the top ten countries of origin to the end of June” he writes, “ just under 70% claimed to have travelled to Ireland – which is in any event impossible in most cases without transiting another country where protection might be applied for – from countries, such as Georgia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Algeria and Nigeria, where there are no crises that would justify this level of asylum seeking. This is confirmed by international statistics on asylum and international protection orders.”
Not only is Ireland bulging at the seams with with ‘asylum seekers’, or that the endless influx is crumbling our already broken housing system, but it is also costing the taxpayer – you and I – a huge amount of money:
“All of that comes to over €696 million in four and a half years. There have been 19,163 persons granted protection here over that same period. On average each of those people have so far directly cost the Irish people over €36,000 just for accommodation, and no doubt “advice” on accommodation. When one adds on the costs of social welfare, education, health, policing and so on, the costs are much higher.
Direct Provision alone cost €200 million in 2020. There were 14,364 persons in Direct Provision here on July 17 according to information given to Cork North Central TD Padraig O’Sullivan. But, of course, the state with the support of all the parties in Leinster House is planning to provide all of them with a free house by 2024. While simultaneously solving the housing problem despite only building, at an optimistic guess, around 30,000 new housing units a year.”
Given that as a nation we are currently involved in a level of pathological ‘kindness’ that has our infrastructure completely overwhelmed, I wonder if these so-called ‘obligations’ Fiona Hurley was talking about might be worth reconsidering.