Gardaí clearing 'tent city' of asylum seekers in Dublin's Mount Street

An operation to disband the “Tent City” of asylum seekers outside the International Protection Office in Dublin is almost complete.

There is a large garda presence in Mount Street where up to 200 asylum seekers have been living in tents for a number of weeks. Gardaí and Dublin City Council are also involved in the operation.

The roads around the area are closed off and there a number of coaches standing by close to the scene.

Earlier, a number of the asylum seekers have been seen packing their belongings.

Curious onlookers gathered to watch hundreds of tents being cleared from the Mount Street location. Lorries with giant shovels at either end of a Garda cordon worked systematically to clear the remaining tents, before dumping them into a mass of fabric on the back of the trucks.

Those clearing the tents include men in white boiler suits, some in anti-viral masks, walked by dragging tents behind them.

One tent was daubed with the words ‘EU racist asylum policy’. Soon enough it too was scooped up.

The operation had begun just after 7am at the infamous Tent City, which had sprung up outside the IPO after the Government began turning asylum seekers seeking accommodation away amid an unprecedented demand for bed spaces.

The migrants themselves were clustered in the centre of the cordon next to buses which were being used to ferry them to new accommodation, which the Government said would provide a roof and sanitation for people who have lived for months with neither.

The location where the asylum seekers are to be moved to was not known at 9am, with the gardaí present none the wiser as to the expected destination. Several buses had already left the area at that point.

A young boy, no more than 14 in school uniform, passed by on an electric scooter shouting “get them out”.

Yesterday, Taoiseach Simon Harris pledged the area would be cleared of tents with those living there to be given safer and cleaner accommodation.

He also said that once the tents were cleared the gathering of tents would not be allowed to re-form.

A number of the asylum seekers have been seen packing their belongings on Dublin’s Mount Street this morning

A number of the asylum seekers have been seen packing their belongings on Dublin’s Mount Street this morning

A Government statement this morning said: “A joint operation between the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Justice; An Garda Síochána; Dublin City Council; the Office of Public Works; and the HSE is underway on Mount Street, Dublin.

“The purpose of the operation is to ensure the safe movement of people seeking international protection from the tents on Mount Street to International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS)-designated accommodation.

“The IPAS-designated accommodation has toilets and showers; health services; indoor areas where food is provided; facilities to charge phones and personal devices; access to transport to and from Dublin City Centre; and 24 hour onsite security.”

Aubrey McCarthy, the founder of Tiglin, the charity that helps people overcome addiction and homelessness, described the situation on Mount Street as “absolutely untenable”.

The charity’s outreach hub in Pearse Street had over 500 people seeking assistance on Tuesday night, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Mr McCarthy told of how he had observed the number of tents on Mount Street increase in recent days with tents doubling up on both sides of the street.

“At our outreach hub, which is the Lighthouse on Pearse Street last night, we had over 500 people queuing for hot food, clothing, sleeping bags, sanitary products. And also we are limited to three toilets. So there’s a queue then of people trying to wash, trying to use the bathroom. And that certainly has doubled since the start of this year.” The situation was not sustainable, he said, as there were only two portable toilets at the back of Grafton Court, for the people sleeping in tents.

“I think the problem is, it is a perfect storm, our housing crisis, the numbers coming in. I think we’ve been sort of caught off guard. And now what’s happened with the UK as well.”

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