Ireland

Asylum seekers applying at IPO arrived via ports and airports in State, not Northern Ireland, they say

Afghans arriving from France came in lorry containers after long journeys over land and sea fleeing the Taliban

Numerous asylum seekers who made their applications at the International Protection Office (IPO) in central Dublin did not come via Northern Ireland, they said. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin

Kitty Holland
Sat May 4 2024 - 06:00

Numerous asylum seekers who made their applications at the International Protection Office (IPO) in central Dublin did not come via Northern Ireland, they said.

Speaking to The Irish Times, they detailed arriving instead through Cork and Dublin ports and Dublin Airport.

Among them were three Afghan men who slept in a church-owned park in Dublin 4 on Thursday night and men from Pakistan and Palestine who remain without accommodation this week.

The Afghans entered Dublin Port in recent days, hidden in lorry containers on ferries from France, they said. The Palestinian said he had arrived as a ferry passenger into Cork, from France, several months ago and had stayed with a friend in Co Tipperary until travelling to Dublin this week to apply for asylum.

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A Pakistani said he had been arrested at Dublin Airport seven weeks ago on arrival from Germany without documents. He said he had two court appearances, was sentenced to six weeks in Cloverhill Prison and on release made his way to the IPO earlier this week.

[ A week that shook Irish politics on immigration reminds us of our fragile relations with Britain ]

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said 80 per cent of asylum applicants are entering the State from Northern Ireland on the basis of a sharp decline in the numbers applying at airports and seaports coinciding with a comparable increase in applications at the IPO on Mount Street Lower.

The five men, all of whom had queued at the IPO for up to five hours on Thursday in the belief they would be offered accommodation, were among about a dozen who spoke to The Irish Times in recent days. While some said they had arrived via Belfast, about half had entered irregularly directly into the Republic.

They all remain without accommodation after a clearance of over 200 asylum seekers’ tents around the IPO on Wednesday morning. On Thursday they were told in a letter handed to them at the IPO “no further offers of accommodation can be made at this time”.

On Friday afternoon all remained unsure where they would sleep over the weekend.

[ Homeless asylum seekers told to ‘disperse and leave’ Mount Street as accommodation runs out ]

The three Afghans arrived into Dublin Port in recent days, they said. Two arrived together on Monday. The third arrived on Tuesday.

They left due to fear of being killed by Taliban, and travelled via Iran and Turkey on foot and in cars, into Europe.

Farid (27), was a civil servant and left Kabul in August 2021. He spent over a year working and saving in Tehran to pay traffickers in March 2023 to get him to northern France.

He was brought by car to Istanbul. From Turkey, he said traffickers brought him overland through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and into France.

France “was very horrible for me”, he said. “I was there many months, no shelter ... waiting to cross the channel to England or Ireland.”

In Cherbourg he paid smugglers €5,000 to get him to “England or Ireland”.

“There is a large community of smugglers around Cherbourg, belong to Kurdish ethnic group. They are organising all these attempts. They are very cruel people. We made almost 10 attempts to cross in big cargo ships. In the 10th attempt they put us in cargo ship. It was seven of us. They put us in container for two nights. Then the ship started its journey to here.”

On arrival in Dublin Port on Tuesday, he said: “The door opened. I think it was the driver who let us out. He did not say anything to us. His face was covered with mask.” He and the others found their way to the IPO, said Farid.

[ UK accepted return of 201 migrants from Ireland under current deal but none was sent ]

Asef (35) and Shabil (34) arrived into Dublin Port, also in a lorry container, on Monday. Asef travelled via Iran and Turkey, and then by boat to Italy. “Five nights and five days I was in this boat. There were 375 people in this ship. By the time we got to Italy engines failed. There was a lot of water coming in. We were very scared. There was a lot of children. Everyone was crying.

“The Italy government told us we were too far away. ‘We cannot save you.’ There was a long boat come from Russia and they come to near they saw all the people, the children, and they save us. After 11 hours we reach Italy. It was really hardest five days of my life.”

He says he was held in Italy for several weeks before taking a train to Switzerland and on to France. His sister in Afghanistan paid traffickers to take him to Calais.

[ Alex Kane: Maybe now the Irish Government will accept that the UK and unionists had a point about open borders ]

“We trying for one year to cross the sea to England. We were not successful. One time we were 74 people in a boat and the waves were getting high. Ten minutes in the sea and all of us were in the water. One hour we were in the sea. It was near to morning but no one come to help. When the France police come we shouted but no one come to help.”

He got back to shore and tried to cross the channel from Dunkirk. “Ten months there we [he and Shabil, whom he met in France] were not successful. Then we go to Cherbourg. There seven months. The last time, finally, success.”

On arrival into Dublin Port he said they “knocked the door” of the container. “The driver opened. He was surprised. He give abuse to us,” he said. “There were five people, all from Afghanistan. We ran fast before he call the police. I am very happy to get here,” said Asef.

The men have wives and children at home. Asked why they didn’t bring them to Ireland they say the journey is “too high risk” for them. “Five days and five nights I was in the sea without eating, without drinking,” says Asef. “That is too dangerous for small people.” They hope to bring them to Ireland, especially their daughters, who cannot attend school in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

[ Pat Leahy: A tougher asylum system is now a political necessity. That might not be pretty ]

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland

Kitty Holland is Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times

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