Asylum seekers in Crooksling to be housed indoors as temperatures drop below zero

Hundreds of asylum seekers staying in Government-provided tented accommodation in Crooksling are to be moved indoors with freezing weather forecast.

Videos circulated on social media on Monday night show wet bedding, leaking rooves and muddy tarpaulin floors at the campsite on the land surrounding the former St Brigid’s nursing home in Crooksling, Co Dublin. The Crooksling site has capacity for 540 people and houses between 10 and 12 men in each tent.

In an update the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said the people involved are being moved indoors to buildings on the site.

The Department added: “Contingency plans to use the buildings on the site as temporary indoor accommodation have been put into action, and all residents will either be moved into the indoor buildings, or to another site, before tonight.

“Our team are on site at Crooksling and will remain in place while we work to ensure people are warm and dry.”

However, an official liaising directly with asylum seekers in Crooksling expressed concern that not all residents had been brought indoors on Tuesday evening.

Snow and sleet fell around Crooksling on Tuesday morning, while Met Éireann has forecast temperatures to drop below freezing on Tuesday night. Temperatures as low as minus 3 will be experienced overnight.

A yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been issued for all of Ireland from 8pm on Tuesday night to 10am on Wednesday morning and from 8pm on Wednesday night to 10am on Thursday morning.

One Palestinian man, who was recently hospitalised with a chest infection before being discharged back into the camp, said men were “frozen from the cold and the heating does not work”. “We are slowly dying and no one cares about us,” he told The Irish Times over WhatsApp.

Dan, a resident from Nigeria, said men were struggling to sleep at night because “everywhere is really wet, the tents are full of cold with no heaters”.

Olivia Headon, spokeswoman for a group of South Dublin volunteers supporting asylum seekers, welcomed the news that Crooksling residents were to be accommodated inside but said more attention could also be paid to improving other facilities.

“[Some of them] are really worried … because they have been moved inside before and then moved back out, and some of them have been there for months,” she said.

“So they won’t feel safe or calm until they’re actually inside, warm, dry and with their beds in front of them.”

Ms Headon said there was a sense that action was being taken due to media coverage and the pending election, and that many men are still awaiting accommodation despite the referral process moving faster.

“We know tonight there will be asylum seekers sleeping in tents in the city.”

In a letter sent to Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman on Tuesday, Ms Headon pointed out that the small heaters provided at Crooksling were insufficient to warm tents, and that health risks were compounded by the facility’s altitude and exposure.

“Despite reports of additional blankets being procured, many men have not received them and remain in soaked clothing. Meanwhile, community volunteers are urgently trying to supply blankets and thermal wear for over 500 men in Crooksling,” it said.

Chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council Nick Henderson said the Government-supplied tented accommodation was “fundamentally inappropriate for people seeking international protection to be placed in.”

“We have seen footage and received reports, from yesterday, of extremely concerning conditions in Crooksling. Sodden clothes, wet floors and leaking roofs. After the rain now comes the cold. This morning we have asked IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Services) to move people indoors at least until the cold weather passes.”

Residents also say they should be moved into the refurbished former nursing home building without delay and before temperatures drop further. Crooksling residents were temporarily moved indoors during the stormy weather in October before being rehoused again in tents.

Asked what efforts were being made to improve conditions in Crooksling, a department of integration spokesman said the IPAS “cold weather response” had come into effect on November 15th, which provides additional supports to asylum seekers in tents or without accommodation.

“All IPAS sites providing tented accommodation have plans in place for adverse weather, including cold weather contingency plans,” he said. “Tented accommodation is provided in robust, weather proof tents. All IPAS tented accommodation now includes heating inside the tents, and additional bedding and blankets are provided during colder weather.” He added that contingency arrangements are in place for the men to be moved indoors during severe weather.

“The Department is progressing renovation work on the indoor accommodation at Crooksling, this is not yet complete and so the accommodation is not yet suitable for routine use.”