ACCOMMODATION SEARCH AS MORE DUBLIN TENTS APPEAR
Efforts are under way to find alternative accommodation for dozens of asylum seekers who have pitched tents along the Grand Canal in Dublin.
Irish authorities removed asylum seekers and tents from a nearby city centre street outside the International Protection Office (IPO) last week.
The IPO is the building where asylum claims are examined and processed.
Last week Taoiseach (Irish PM) Simon Harris said "makeshift shanty towns" would not be allowed to develop again.
The IPO building is just around the corner from where the tents are currently pitched on both sides of the Grand Canal.
Local charities are on the ground providing meals and information about support services.
The men are from different parts of the world and many say they have spent months travelling across continents to flee persecution in their homelands.
They are spending a lot of time in small groups supporting each other, while some place mats on the grass to pray.
When their meals are delivered by the charity workers, some of the men sit inside their tents.
Others eat their food while sitting discreetly outside, beside the canal walkway.
The presence of the tents along the popular canal walkways over the bank holiday weekend has increased pressure on the Irish government to provide suitable accommodation for the men.
It is understood alternative accommodation may become available in the coming days.
Anglo-Irish diplomatic row
In the mean time, local community leaders and business owners are waiting to see if the authorities remove these tents.
Mr Harris made his " shanty towns" comments in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) last week, before the tents were pitched along the Grand Canal.
Some of the asylum seekers currently in Dublin have travelled within the Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland.
This caused a diplomatic row between the two countries last week.
Some of the men complete the final leg of their journey through Northern Ireland, travelling across the border into the Republic of Ireland by bus, train, and occasionally as car passengers.
2024-05-07T09:20:14Z dg43tfdfdgfd