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Asylum seekers forced to wash clothes in sinks at Dublin hotel

Over 1,000 asylum seekers are now living in hotels and B&Bs around Ireland.

Clayton. Clayton Hotel, Liffey Valley GoogleMaps GoogleMaps

ASYLUM SEEKERS IN Dublin have been forced to wash their clothes in hotel sinks due to prohibitive laundry costs amid ongoing issues for people living in emergency accommodation in Ireland. 

Since September, the Department of Justice & Equality has accommodated people seeking international protection in Ireland in hotels and B&Bs due to capacity issues in the Direct Provision system. 

Earlier this week, TheJournal.ie reported that international protection applicants at the Clayton Hotel were told not to bring food to their rooms “under any circumstances”.

Due to the expense of cleaning facilities at the hotel, too, residents – who receive €38.80 weekly allowance – have been washing their clothes in hotel sinks and drying them on radiators. 

Cleaning prices charged by the hotel include €3 per t-shirt, €16.50 for washing and drying a shirt and €18.70 for washing and drying a dress.

There are no laundry facilities available for people to wash their clothes. 

Ireland’s 39 Direct Provision centres are currently at capacity as the Department’s Reception & Integration Agency (RIA) continue to contract hotels and B&Bs. 

Normally, laundry facilities are provided in Direct Provision centres. People living in these emergency centres, however, have experienced a continued lack of service provision and cramped conditions. 

Similar laundry issues arose for people living in the Travelodge in Swords, Dublin earlier this year when one family had to wash their clothes in a bathroom sink for six months.

The Movement for Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) has described these hotel policies as “infantilising”.

This week, the owner of the Central Hotel in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare issued a notice to people telling residents “you must be in your room by 10pm. No excuses!”

“A long-term solution and radical change in the way asylum seekers are treated in Ireland is needed urgently,” a Masi spokesperson told TheJournal.ie. “This is not the first time we’ve received a report of a curfew”. 

Since September, the Department has paid almost €9 million to private businesses to accommodate international protection applicants.

There are currently 1,068 international protection applicants – including 177 children – living in emergency accommodation. 

‘Service Provision’

A spokesperson for RIA told TheJournal.ie that it is “endeavouring to move people to [Direct Provision] centres in as short a time as possible”.

RIA recently moved families with children from emergency locations where dedicated laundry facilities were not available to emergency locations with dedicated laundry facilities, they added. 

The Department has confirmed to TheJournal.ie that it also has no role in carrying out inspections of emergency accommodation set-ups nor can it permit visits but said that RIA staff hold clinics where they meet with residents in emergency accommodation to address concerns. 

Hotels and B&Bs used as emergency accommodation are contracted to provide beds and three meals per day.  

“The Department does not control access to private premises and for that reason, we are not in a position to allow a visit in the same way that is possible at RIA [Direct Provision] centres,” the spokesperson said.

“RIA typically contracts a defined number of rooms within existing commercial hotels and guest houses and therefore does not have exclusive use of the premises,” they added.

Before agreeing terms with an emergency accommodation provider, the spokesperson said, a RIA staff member inspects the accommodation “to ensure it is suitable”. 

“During the past twelve months, there has been a rise in the number of applications and this, combined with well-documented difficulties experienced by the RIA in opening new [Direct Provision] centres, has stretched the system to its full capacity.”

Masi has said that the head of RIA has written to the group to organise a meeting which it said “has to takeplace as a matter of urgency” to address issues in Ireland’s Direct Provision system. 

In June 2018, 234 people applied for international protections here compared with 383 people this year.

Earlier this week, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan published the National Standards Framework for Ireland’s asylum system alongside this year’s spending review for the whole system. 

The cost of Direct Provision, Flanagan said, is expected to top €120 million this year compared with €78 million in 2018.

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    Mute Tricia G ☘️
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    Jun 16th 2022, 11:16 AM

    His SECOND ethics adviser to resign.

    When the first line of your job description is to remind an inveterate liar not to lie, you’re unlikely to be in your position for the very long…..

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    Mute E.J. Murray
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    Jun 16th 2022, 12:29 PM

    Someone resigns, and as usual it isn’t Johnson.

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    Mute Declan Moran
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    Jun 16th 2022, 12:05 PM

    Bojo & ethics, don’t really go hand in hand really :). Bit of an oxymoron

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    Mute Buzz Killington
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    Jun 16th 2022, 1:08 PM

    @Declan Moran: Nah, just a moron.

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    Mute Steve O'Hara-Smith
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    Jun 16th 2022, 2:15 PM

    @Buzz Killington: If only he was, sadly he’s a very clever but odious person.

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    Jun 16th 2022, 2:34 PM

    @Steve O’Hara-Smith: A clever but odious mor0n so…

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    Mute Kevin Farrell
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    Jun 16th 2022, 3:04 PM

    @Declan Moran: Or even an Oxford Moron!!!!

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    Mute Niall O'Reilly
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    Jun 16th 2022, 1:51 PM

    Johnson heads up a cabinet of rogues and expects the accolades for holding the highest office of UK government. A government happy to break the law. A government in cahoots with the DUP. A government of shady deals. Without principle. Without honesty. Working to benefit themselves and the tax evasion party they have taken over. When will the working people of England and Wales come to their senses and kick these racketeers out of government?

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    Mute Aaron Tynan
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    Jun 16th 2022, 2:31 PM

    @Niall O’Reilly: the General public in England are deluded. I live here and honestly the rubbish they believe is insane. They think brexit and the tories will bring back mass manufacturing to England and that they will produce all their own goods. All the while the tories are tearing apart what’s left of the manufacturing and slowly privatise the NHS.
    It’s hard to know when working class England will wake up, but I think when they do it will be too late.

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    Mute E.J. Murray
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    Jun 16th 2022, 3:40 PM

    @Aaron Tynan: — The propaganda machine is the only thing that’s working over there, and has been fully operational since before the referendum. Everyone I know over there voted for Brexit, and one of them who works in the NHS voted Brexit because she was convinced that the EU was going to destroy the NHS. I pointed out to her, after she voted, that people in the know had already named the people who were out to destroy the NHS, and that those people were members of the Tory Party, and that the EU had no intention of bringing the NHS to its knees. All in all, they think Johnson’s a great fella altogether, and don’t seem to realise that he despises most of the “converts” who decided to vote Tory after decades of voting Labour.

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