Chai Brady and Theo McDonald
Charity workers providing support to Ireland’s migrants and asylum seekers are facing threats of having their workplaces burnt out as well as racist abuse online.
Chairman of Tiglin, a charity that operates under a Christian ethos, Aubrey McCarthy has said the homeless charity have received online threats in recent weeks for helping incoming migrants.
“There have been nasty threats made to the lighthouse and you see them online,” he told The Irish Catholic.
“So people are saying they’re going to burn down the Lighthouse and we shouldn’t be feeding black people.”
Project worker for Merchants Quay Ireland, Richard Williams, said that the homelessness charity has seen a “massive increase” in the numbers of people seeking asylum availing of their food services, and that there has been an increase in criticism and abuse from Irish service users.
Mr Williams said: “I suppose within the service you would have a small cohort of people that would be Irish and would be asking ‘why are you putting them first? or ‘why are you looking after them and not looking after us?’ and that they should be getting more”.
However, he added the situation was similar 15 years ago during Ireland’s economic crash but the focus was on Polish and Eastern European migrants, “now it’s changed to the IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Service) clients”.
Before Christmas MQI was serving 80 meals on a Sunday, this has increased to 120. Mr Williams said: “That fizzles throughout all aspects of the service, throughout the whole multidisciplinary team, whether that be the GP, the nurse, shower facilities, food, clothing, all that – there’s been a massive increase.
“A lot of them would be from different backgrounds, different religions, so if they’re Muslim for example they want halal food, they won’t eat pork, so all those kind of things present an issue as well. The best we can offer them is the vegetarian option, but a lot of them will eat most meats apart from pork regardless of whether it’s halal or not but they do request it but to be able to cater for everybody’s needs is just impossible.”
He added that he believes the Government is giving people who are seeking international protection “false hope in that they are under the illusion they are going to find some form of accommodation and they’re handed a sleeping bag and a tent and a list of services where they can find food”.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic last week a man outside the IPAS centre in Dublin said he came to Ireland from Uganda through Doha, after reading in The Irish Times that tents were being taken down and accommodation offered. However he was not given accommodation and remains homeless. The man has been sleeping rough on Moore Street, saying he had recently been assaulted and it is very unsafe. “These guys who take weed, they were fighting at night and scrapped my leg,” he said before adding that he received medical care at the Mater Hospital and was hoping to get accommodation as a result of the assault.