Michelle Devane, PA
A Government minister has said it is “disappointing” that more than 30 Ukrainian refugees were left without accommodation on Friday.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heyden said this was not the space in which the Government wanted to be.
The Fine Gael TD added that from Monday, an overnight facility will be in place at Dublin Airport to take in refugees who arrive on late flights, before being processed at the Citywest transit hub the next day.
The Government admitted on Thursday that it cannot rule out that Ukrainian refugees will not end up on the streets due to a shortage of accommodation.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth confirmed to the PA news agency on Saturday that 33 refugees, all single men, were told on Friday that there was no accommodation available for them.
A spokesman said: “Thirty-three people, all single males, were informed yesterday that no accommodation was available and asked to provide contact details for when it does become available.”
The Citywest transit hub, which processes new arrivals, has reached capacity. It is understood some slept in Dublin Airport overnight.
The department has said that all those affected were single men.
“My understanding is 33 male Ukrainians were not able to be accommodated last night. And that’s a really disappointing place for us to be in,” Mr Heyden told RTÉ’s Saturday with Katie Hannon.
“We don’t want to be in that space.”
He said he understood the men were registered, their contact details were taken and they were linked up with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
He told the programme an increase in people coming from Ukraine has put “stress and strain” on the system.
Mr Heyden said: ‘We are talking about 60,000 people who have come to our shores this year, who are seeking and who have been accommodated by the state to date, that compares to 7,250 this time last year. That’s the equivalent of the population of Waterford city, it’s a massive undertaking.”
“What we’ve seen in recent weeks is that the amount of people coming has increased significantly. While it had dropped off a little bit over the summer, it has more than doubled in recent weeks compared to what it was at the beginning of September and that has put stress and strain on the system.”
He added: “We can’t guarantee everybody who comes here a bed now because of the situation we’re in. We have to be honest and upfront about that while we redouble our efforts, work across Government, across State agencies to develop those medium term solutions.”
The department said on Thursday night that the Citywest transit centre had reached capacity amid a severe constraint on suitable accommodation.
A group representing NGOs said that pregnant women and the elderly were sleeping on chairs and on the floor at the overcrowded Citywest facility.
Wayne Stanley, head of policy and communication at the Simon Communities, said the country is heading into a “perfect storm” on accommodation.
He said the situation is “very worrying” and is likely to get worse.
“Obviously the Simon Communities and all of the homeless services in Dublin and around the country will do everything we can to support people, but there’s no capacity in the system at the moment,” he said.
“The Government is the process of bringing in a moratorium on evictions, given the scale of the homelessness crisis we’re facing… this really is a perfect storm we’re heading into.”
He said there would not be many refugees on the streets so far caused by the accommodation shortage, but added: “The coming weeks are going to be very difficult so we are very concerned.”
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