Over 50 tents set up along Dublin's Grand Canal by asylum seekers, including Palestinians

Tents pitched along the Grand Canal by asylum seekers.

OVER 50 TENTS have been set up – in the main by unaccommodated asylum seekers – on the banks of Dublin city’s grand canal.

At the section of the canal near the upper Mount Street area, asylum seekers who have been in Ireland for months and those who are newly arrived have set up tents, with Dublin City Council provided rubbish bags tied to many of them.

Asylum seekers who have pitched tents along the canal have told The Journal that they have done so because after sleeping rough on O’Connell street for several nights, they believe camping in a group will be safer. One couple said that they were previously threatened by two men with knives when they camped in another part of the city centre.

This new encampment has formed after just under 290 people were moved from the encampment on Wednesday that was surrounding the International Protection Office on Mount Street, to Crooksling and Citywest accommodation sites.

Asylum seekers who had been sleeping in other parts of the city went to CityWest for accommodation, but were refused, as the Department of Integration said the site was at capacity.

On Wednesday, the Taoiseach Simon Harris thanked the agencies who were involved in accommodating people who were sleeping at the Mount Street encampment. He said that a scenario where “tented villages” form on an ad hoc basis cannot be allowed to develop.

Ahmad, 25, from Nablus in Palestine has been in Ireland for two months. After the Mount Street camp was shut down he went to Citywest to seek accommodation, but was turned away and told there was no more capacity at the centre.

He has been sleeping on O’Connell street near the Spire for the last few nights with two other Palestinian men in the same situation. They met on the streets, and have been helping each other out. When they heard that people were setting up tents at the Grand Canal, they decided it would be safer to move there.

Saddam (22) was helping Ahmad to set up a tent by the canal this morning. He escaped from Gaza via the Rafah crossing two months ago. His father was killed in a bombing roughly a month ago, and his mother is still in Gaza.

Another man, aged 41, has been helping Saddam to navigate the asylum application process, as he has good fluency in English.

“You ask if sleeping here is hard for us, not really,” he laughs, “We’ve come from Palestine, you see. Don’t worry about us, people are helping, people have been very nice,” he explained.

Abdel, from Morocco, set up a tent by Grand Canal with his wife in recent days too. They have been in Ireland for six months.

When they were camping at another location in the city, closer to Mount Street, two men threatened them with knives and told them to leave the area with their tent, or they would be stabbed.

“Moments like this have been very scary. And it is raining, it is cold. We get food from Merchant’s Quay, but right now it is closed. These people at Merchant’s quay, they give clothes, food, showers, respect to us. They help,” he said.

Abdel and his wife are now camping amongst other homeless asylum seekers near the canal – as they have been wary of being based on their own since the knife threat incident.

Nadette, a volunteer from Phibsboro For All, and Lara, a woman involved in organising language classes and sports activities for asylum seekers and refugees, were down at the tents by Grand Canal this morning chatting to people setting up there.

“We try to connect people, to assist them, for example if someone is attacked we try to make sure they have their pulse number from the Gardaí. Those attacks have ranged from serious assaults to verbal abuse, and teenagers knocking chips out of asylum seeker’s hands – that kind of thing. That’s happening because the conversation around this has become so toxic, it’s made these people a target,” Nadette said.

She said that though many asylum seekers are coming here having escaped difficult and traumatic experiences, you can see that sleeping on the streets is having an effect on them.

“You can see the psychological impact on their faces and in their eyes, but still, they have so much hope, they are trying very hard to get their documents, work permits, and to move on with their lives,” she said.

Lara said that there is a good turn out for the activities she helps to organise, and that there are even some ex-professional cricket players from Afghanistan amongst those sleeping in the tents, as well as ex-semi professional soccer players.

“I don’t see the point in closing down one camp for people to have to move and set up another. There are newly arrived people here, and people who were turned away from Citywest. They are out in the open here, and exposed to great risk,” she said.

The Journal has asked the Department of Integration for comment.