New encampment begins at Grand Canal less than 24 hours after tents removed
Tents at the canal this morning
A SMALL ENCAMPMENT has formed on Dublin 2′s Grand Canal, where unaccommodated asylum seekers are taking shelter.
It comes less than 24 hours after the State removed around 100 tents from the area and erected barricades to deter new encampments.
The men were offered alternative accommodation and bussed to different locations.
Around 25 new tents sit on the banks of the canal as of this morning.
Local councillor James Geoghegan said he saw the tents begin to pop up again last night.
He told The Journal that the Taoiseach “has been very clear” that such encampments “are not going to be permitted on the streets”.
However, he added: “We have to acknowledge that from time to time is will be the case that, perhaps over a couple of nights, there may be people who will sleep in tents for a variety of reasons, principally being the IPAS haven’t been able to identify them accommodation.”
Asked where asylum seekers should go if they have not been provided accommodation but are not allowed to sleep in tents on the street, Geoghegan said: “It simply just cannot be the case that there isn’t accommodation provided for international applicants.
“It will be at least over the medium term, forms of tents and tented accommodation, but in appropriate places with sanitation facilities.
The wheels of the state just have to keep moving.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said
More to follow.