Lone parent women in limbo as Govt eviction deadline passes

The deadline for female lone-parent asylum seekers living in direct provision who received eviction letters was last Friday, July 5. Gráinne Kilcullen, Head of Programmes for ActionAid, told The Irish Catholic “there has been an ad hoc follow up approach by IPAS to the eviction notices.”

She explained that some of the women being evicted received a second letter last week stating their cases are under review and they will be contacted again in a few weeks with updates.

The exception to the evictions was applied to those aged over 65 and those with significant medical or welfare needs. On June 26, the charity ActionAid released a statement urging for single parents to be included in the exceptions.

For Ms Kilcullen the problem is that these women were told to integrate “as the Minister [Roderic O’Gorman] has said in parliamentary questions and that [the evictions] is undermining all the efforts that they have made to integrate”.

Ms Kilcullen said that out of “over 5,000 people given the right to remain in Ireland in 2024”, 3,004 people were sent letters of eviction. The number of women and children was not provided, but Ms Kilcullen believes they are “a substantial amount”.

Some of the women the charity works with “got a phone call to say they will not be transferred at this time as there isn’t any room in emergency accommodation”, while another mother was told she and her children would be reallocated to Co Cork, but received a letter a few days after that saying “the deadline for her to leave her current IPAS centre has been extended to July 18.”

“She is in limbo again, does not know where she will be transferred to, making it very difficult for her to buy school materials”, Ms Kilcullen said. “All the women we work with are lone parents and have gotten their status to remain. Some have been in Ireland ten years, seven years”.

She also explained that these women “are also on the housing list and have been looking for help from their local councils in Wicklow, Cork and Mayo but have not received enough support to help them find independent accommodation.”