The Department of Integration had to spend €22,000 on new tents and sleeping bags for asylum seekers after their makeshift shelters were destroyed during a clean-up operation in Dublin on March 16, just before St. Patrick’s Day.
According to Irish mirror, the operation targeted an encampment on Mount Street Lower, where around 200 male refugees had been living outside the International Protection Office. The clean-up involved two trucks equipped with hydraulic grabbers, which were used to remove and destroy the tents.
To replace the destroyed shelters, the department purchased 250 two-man tents for €14,750 and 250 sleeping bags for an additional €7,250. The asylum seekers were then transported by bus to Crooksling, a location 20 km outside Dublin city, where they were told to pitch their new tents on a mountainside.
The department cited health and safety concerns as the reason for clearing the encampment and moving the occupants. However, Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion suggested the timing was no coincidence, coming just before the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The Department of Integration defended the operation, stating that alternative accommodation with access to essential services had been offered due to “public health and security risks.”