Jolted ministers look at reset on asylum policy as they fear lives could be lost here

Late last November, a Bangladeshi family claiming asylum in Ireland arrived by taxi from Dublin to their assigned accommodation in the small village of Coole in Co Westmeath.

But when the family, which included children, arrived on the cold, dark winter’s night at the renovated Coole Court accommodation complex, there was no one from the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) there to meet them and, what’s more, the building itself was locked.

Indeed, the only people there were a small group of protesters opposed to the use of a renovated section of a former orthopaedic hospital to house asylum seekers.

While accounts vary exactly as to what happened next, one official said the protesters demanded to see the family’s Department of Justice documentation and then proceeded to take photographs of it. These photos, with names redacted, were later posted widely on social media, including by Independent senator Sharon Keogan.

When another family arrived a short time later, also by taxi, they, too, were met only by protesters with no IPAS officials in sight. Eventually one protester, fearing events may get out of hand, reached out to local Fine Gael TD Peter Burke.

The junior minister immediately contacted Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s office. Eventually, IPAS officials were sent to the area within a few hours, along with local gardaí, to facilitate the families’ entry to the accommodation.

IPAS later apologised to the families still living in the facility for what has been described as a clerical error that meant the owner of the premises was not told they would be coming on the night in question.

Burke relayed this story, the details of which have been verified by the Sunday Independent, at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday as evidence of the at-times chaotic nature of the State’s handling of an unprecedented migration crisis. “People being dumped like that in the middle of nowhere,” he lamented to colleagues.

According to one senior minister, last week was when “a switch flipped in government” on the issue. “There is a need to move on from the constant emergency response and the political paralysis brought about wondering what village will be next,” they said.

Many might wonder why it has taken a spate of arson attacks and the high-profile protest outside the only hotel in Roscrea to prompt this renewed impetus from the Coalition.

But in truth, this can often be the nature of how governments of all hues function; reacting only when a situation reaches crisis point, having failed to appropriately heed alarm bells that have been growing louder — in this case, by the week since early last year.

That there are genuine fears, articulated by Taoiseach again last week, that one of these arson attacks might lead to a death or deaths, underlines the level of concern.

In the coming days, O’Gorman is expected to update a cabinet committee on long-mooted plans to move from a situation of his department leasing privately provided accommodation to acquiring its own state-run facilities.

This is expected to involve the Government acquiring up to six accommodation centres across the country, each on a scale similar to that which is operating out of the Citywest Hotel, Dublin.

The intention will be for each centre to have a capacity to take between 450 and 600 people. Work on the procurement process will begin once the memo is agreed by the full Cabinet either later this month or in early February, with some centres operational this year and by summer where possible.

Potential sites are being discussed, but there is a sensitivity around identifying exact locations given the recent arson attacks. There will likely be one in Dublin with the others spread across the regions. One of the possible sites, the name of which has been in the public domain since last year, is Thornton Hall in north Dublin which was once to be a €525m so-called “super prison” to replace Mountjoy Prison.

On top of this — as the Irish Independent reported last week — extra nurses in GP practices, more reserve gardaí and additional English-language teachers for schools are among some of the measures on the table as part of a new package of state support for areas which have taken the most migrants.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee is likely to provide a detailed briefing for the Cabinet and the Dáil setting out recent changes in how the International Protection Office (IPO) has been processing applications.

One significant change highlighted by insiders is that IPO officials now consider the three grounds under which a person can remain in the State — refugee status, subsidiary protection (SP) or permission to remain (PTR) — at the same time.

Previously, a person refused refugee status would then apply for SP and, if then refused that, they apply PTR. It was a protracted process that could drag on for years. The time saved has been swallowed up by the soaring numbers of arrivals, but the system, insiders say, is working more efficiently.

McEntee is also likely to revise the list of “safe countries of origin”, which her officials have been reviewing since the middle of last year. At present eight countries — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, and South Africa — are deemed safe; making it much harder for arrivals from those countries to obtain refugee status. The addition and removal of some countries is likely and will, according to a senior source, “mean fewer people can claim asylum”.

All this will form part of what appears to be a Coalition reset on immigration policy that does not in itself amount to a major policy change.

But expect it to be pointed out that there are no easy fixes. Brexit has not resolved Britain’s political obsession with immigration. “It has cost more than £400m and the only people who have gone to Rwanda [where the UK government plans to send migrants that arrive there illegally] are ministers,” an Irish minister said.

“A lot of people don’t understand what rights an asylum seeker has. If someone comes here from Afghanistan and we deem them ineligible to remain, how do we get them back?

“We can’t just ring up the Taliban and say, ‘Will you take them back?’ We need to get into the weeds and say to people that a slogan won’t solve migration.”

It will not be an easy task, nor will it likely assuage the growing sense of dread among some politicians as they grapple an increasing level of menace from a small minority that is not just confined to their inboxes.

Another minister this weekend recalled being confronted last summer by one individual who roared obscenities at them on the middle of a shop floor while they were with their young child. No one came to their assistance.

“This will be the year of the dead TD; this is getting out of control. The abuse now is chronic. Something stupid is going to happen this year. I am convinced there is going to be Jo Cox. That’s my real fear,” the minister said, referring to the British Labour MP who was murdered by a white supremacist in June 2016.

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