Former Sinn Féin and now Independent Cllr. Aidan Mullins has drawn attention to a bizarre situation in which fifteen asylum seekers have been placed in a Co. Laois house despite having no right to be there.
IPAS claims they have not approved the action, and while Gardaí have visited the residence no action has so far been taken in what could set a new asylum precedent.
Gript reports that ‘the owner of the East End Hotel had been seen at the house’ and ‘those currently staying in the house go to the East End Hotel each day around dinner time’.
The East End Hotel, which is currently housing migrants, is owned by Noel and Patrick Martin. ‘[They] are not our tenants, do not pay rent and have no right to be in the property, let alone sub-let to anyone else’ according to the woman who owns the house. She claims that she has attempted to have the current residents removed.
Locals from the Kilnacourt Woods estate, Portarlington, claim that the house being used by migrants ‘has resulted in our street resembling a ghetto, with numerous bunk beds visible through the windows, and constant noise throughout the night’.
Last year Cllr. Mullins claimed that ‘Portarlington is a dumping ground for asylum seekers […] The local hotel closed down pubs and closed hairdressers, and the developers bought up private houses and outbid locals trying to get on the property market. They’re in private houses in estates around the town; it’s been saturated’.
The asylum situation in Ireland continues to spiral into chaos. How has a house been illegally requisitioned to house migrants and why is the state allowing this violation to continue? Why have the migrants not been removed? Did an official sign off on the illegal requisition or were the migrants squatting in the building? These questions remain currently unanswered.
80% of asylum applicants coming via the North
Matt Treacy has recently revealed that ‘80% of those claiming asylum had entered the state from across the border with the north’ and of those who are not arriving via the North ‘it is evident that a very significant proportion—78%—of those claiming asylum at Dublin airport continue to present with no documents or with false documents.’
While most Nationalists support the lack of any border on the island it is clear that migrants are taking advantage of that fact in order to legally relocate from Britain to Ireland via Belfast. The freedom of movement played a key role in last week’s arrest for the murder of Mary Ward and highlighted that while most ire towards immigration has been concentrated south of the border, the North has its own immigration woes as well.
The Arab on Dame Street: Murder of Mary Ward Update
Last week the suspect in Mary Ward’s murder was arrested in Dublin. Ward was found dead in her Belfast home on October 1st, though the PSNI believe she was killed around September 25th, the last time she was seen alive.
In the days leading up to her death, she had contacted the PSNI multiple times to report that she had been the victim of violent crime.
A suspect was arrested and subsequently released in relation to these allegations. ‘Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck has confirmed this is the same person arrested in connection to her murder’.
The suspect Ahmed Abdirahman, 31, originally from North Africa with ‘legal status’ in the North, was arrested in Dublin after the murder. His address is listed as Kinlay House, Dame St, Dublin 2 and he is being tried in the Dublin Courts under the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Act 1976 which allows for certain crimes committed in the North to be tried by Southern courts. He pleads not guilty in relation to the murder.
In the wake of the murder, attention has been drawn to the high murder rate in the North, where four women have been murdered in the space of six weeks.
Some of the attempts to explain the murder rate focus on the legacy of political violence in the North: ‘For decades violence was part of everyday life in many communities, people became desensitised and cooperation with police was strongly discouraged and frowned upon.’
This explanation is at odds with the facts of the Mary Ward case, however. She was in regular contact with the police and her alleged abuser and murderer is a man from North Africa. Placing the blame on paramilitary violence thirty years ago is a scapegoat to evade the uncomfortable political realities happening in the here and now.
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