Tented camp 'will not be used again' in Athlone
Tents in which asylum seekers were accommodated in Athlone for two and a half months last year have now been "decommissioned" and will not be used here again, according to a Government Department.
A makeshift tented camp was set up on the grounds of the direct provision centre in Lissywollen last August, and the tents came into use on September 21.
At its busiest, the tented facility was used to accommodate more than 170 male asylum seekers. These residents started to be moved out from mid-November, with the tents being fully vacated by December 9.
Last week it emerged that, in a u-turn from the Government, a tented facility for asylum seekers (formally known as international protection applicants) in Knockalisheen, Co Clare, was now being used again and was sheltering 88 people.
However, it was stated last week that the tents in Athlone would not be brought back into service.
"The tented options previously in place in Athlone and Tralee will remain decommissioned and will not return to use," a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth told the Westmeath Independent on Thursday last.
The spokesperson said that, as of January 2, over 70,000 arrivals into Ireland were being accommodated by the State, including some 51,955 Ukrainian people and more than 19,300 international protection applicants.
"The war in Ukraine combined with the high number of international protection applicants continues to put real pressure on the Government's ability to offer accommodation, and has resulted in the largest humanitarian effort in the State's history," said the spokesperson.
Minister Roderic O'Gorman told RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne programme in December that "we are not going to be using the tents in Knockalisheen again," but the Department confirmed last week that 88 people were again residing in tents there.
"The Department will endeavour to ensure that the use of tents at Knockalisheen is a short-term measure but in the context of the accommodation shortage, the priority must remain on providing shelter," the spokesperson added.
The tented facilities that were used in Athlone last year were criticised by the New Horizon Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support group, with its chairperson Gerry Callaghan describing them as "inhuman and degrading".