Local residents concerned about growing encampment on Grand Canal, fear repeat of Mount Street

Tents erected along Grand Canal

RESIDENTS OF DUBLIN 2 have expressed concern about a growing number of tents inhabited by unaccommodated asylum seekers along the banks of the Grand Canal.

The new encampment has doubled in size, from around 50 tents to 100, since the weekend.

It comes after tents on Mount Street, outside the International Protection Office, were cleared last week.

The Department of Integration said “just under” 290 people were removed and relocated to alternative accommodation at Citywest and the Crooksling tented accommodation site.

Kevin Byrne of the South Georgian Core Residents Association says locals were “relieved” last Wednesday when the tents were removed as they felt the situation had gotten “out of control”.

“But we’re disappointed to see that so quickly after that, this new encampment started emerging just around the corner.

“It was reported to Waterways Ireland as soon as we saw a tent appear there because we know from experience that if a small number are left it’ll quickly grow.

Right now, the canal banks are “completely full”, and locals are concerned that soon other pathways in the area will be blocked too.

Byrne said that while he has sympathy for the migrants who are forced to live in these conditions, the situation is being poorly managed.

“We tried to put up with the situation on Lower Mount Street out of sympathy with the men in the tents … but we did so on the basis of assuming that responsible agencies would be quickly looking to get a handle on the situation that emerged there.

“That didn’t happen. It went on for 14 months.

“On this occasion, we’re speaking out much more quickly because we don’t want to see that happen again.”

Taoiseach Simon Harris said yesterday that he was pleased to see so many asylum seekers being given accommodation at the Citywest transit hub.

However, asylum seekers living by the canal on Saturday told The Journal that they had been sleeping rough on O’Connell Street since Friday when they were turned away from Citywest as it was at capacity.

Harris said that a “multi-agency response” is needed to avoid a “national game of pass the parcel”.

“What we saw in relation to Mount Street was utterly unacceptable. It’s getting very near a public health emergency in terms of the wellbeing of very vulnerable people.”

He said that what happened in Mount Street – where tents remained and conditions worsened “for months and months” – “will not be the situation in relation to the Grand Canal.”