Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings and threadbans - updated 11/5/24*

How many posters?

As a previous poster said, it is bizarre that certain charities and outreach organisations are actively supporting the tent encampments, in direct opposition to Government policy on clearing so called "shanty towns".

I never thought I would ever say it, but at this stage, the IPAS and mass accommodation centres should move to the Curragh camp or similar now.

That won't solve the "freedom of movement" of AS into the towns around I suppose, but it is accommodation, and if it doesn't suit the AS, well what are they looking for if not food and shelter.

Mixed messages from Leo and Simon, Leo basically said you can live wherever you want but Simon is saying absolutely not, not in his back yard anyway.

Nobody gets a veto don't forget.

I’m willing to be wrong, but I haven’t seen much, if any of those type of posts.

If the discussion is on policies of deterrence, then accommodation provision is on the periphery of that, it is relevant in as far as any asylum system has to address the issue of accommodation but it is distinct from policies of deterrence, if is was paired with a policy of detention, or if was question of locating accommodation at ports of entry instead of in centralised areas, then it would verge on a policy of deterrence but otherwise it is a tangent. In discussing accommodation provision you have introduced a different topic from the one that was being discussed, which is fine, but reducing the Daily Expenses Allowance, limiting access to the Medical Card, increasing the threshold for protection and all that were mentioned because we were explicitly discussing policies of deterrence and Ireland’s attractiveness to migrants. Absolutely accommodation is an issue that has to be addressed but it is distinct from deterrence.

Both can be true at once. We literally have a shanty town developed because there is nowhere for people to go.

Anyone who comes at with this statements now is of a gaslighting character.

I hope people in the Department of Justice and Department of Integration are working today to fix this mess. Imagine the number of people that will turn up at the IPO tomorrow if it's closed today and they'll be further behind.

Do we not like agency nurses now too?

I’ve the impression that they are actually fairly low, in the hundreds rather than in the thousands.

i don't see why this should be seen as a far out plan. The idea that we just let any tom, dick or harry into the country and they can just aimlessly walk out of centres within a couple of days of arriving is madness.

It'll grow larger. I think it was a mistake for Harris to say that there'll be no shanty towns.

He or anyone can't possibly control on a minute by minute basis the actions of a group of a few hundred people.

If that area of the canal was cleared right this minute, what's to stop NGOs giving tents out tomorrow and a group organising to set up on another area of the canal (or phoenix park or church grounds or wherever)

I think specifically, the canal is a difficult one. The tents are on grass verges at the minute. The land is managed by waterways Ireland. The only law I can see is it's illegal to pitch a tent for more than a week in the same location on a canal path.

Even if..IF after a week, action is taken by waterways Ireland, that probably involves a court order or something. Say that's successful after a week, then time getting council in to move the tents and so on...

All of it to be done for tents to emerge the next day a few 100m away and the process to begin again?

That's no solution.

There will be tents so long as there'll be either 1) applicants coming without the facilities to house them

or

2) so long as there are people or organisations willing to facilitate the pitching of tents in order to keep the issue in the media and use it as a platform to demand x,y or z. (The pessimist in me includes a demand for an increase in funding for these organisations that have a board and pay staff members salaries)

Just in case there's any confusion either, I'm not anti immigrant. I think diversity is an education and the spice of life.

I'm making a point specifically in relation to why the tent situation isn't going to end, and it's foolish of politicians or senior civil servants to put an absolute temporary band aid that clearly doesn't account for human actions and motives and people will clearly set up elsewhere within a day.

It's a symptom of the failed system we have, moving the tents in a cat and mouse game is 1% of the problem and the one you should be addressing last.

The govt needs to make the big boy decisions surrounding entry in the first place, speed of decision and implementation of rejections.

At the moment, anyone can come, govt know there's nowhere to put them and while waiting can pitch a tent. If the system was changed, the tents wouldn't be there in the first place.

Moving them every so often while addressing none of the other moving parts of our asylum process achieves absolutely nothing.

No resources are being 'diverted' anywhere - the country is operating a budget surplus and has done for the last three years i.e. we have money in the national exchequer that is not even being spent.

Do they not publish the figures on how many are in indefinite detention?

I've been looking and can't find them.

”we wouldn’t have Deliveroo drivers” Drivers are being paid peanuts and are often in dangerous conditions just to deliver burgers to people. Maybe Deliveroo isn’t the best example of how society is improved

And again, legal migration through the correct means is a good thing. I’m just not sure I’d use Deliveroo as an example

Agree with most of this and lots of fair points.

The only thing I disagree with is that the speed of rejections, threshold for rejection etc is the solution.

Housing capacity to house the residual approved applications is the only way to prevent homelessness/tents on the street.

Stronger entry conditions, strict deportations etc of course helps, but when all is said and done, there will always be a number of approved applicants that we agree to accommodate.

The first focus should be on projecting those numbers and then making sure we have the accommodation for them, if we want to ensure that tent cities dont spring up across the land.