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Racism is present in Ireland. I’m going to make a thread here which will hopefully explain what direct provision is; for those who haven’t heard of it; and what you can do to stop supporting businesses that profit from it. Injustices are a lot closer to home than people think.
I plan to link all the articles I used to create this thread just for anyone who’d like to read them. This is quite long but I think I’ve made it fairly easy to digest. Apologies for any spelling/grammar errors as I’m frustrated.
So first off, what is direct provision? It is a system of asylum seeker accommodation. The system, operated by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) of the Department of Justice and Equality, provides asylum seeker residents with accommodation & an allowance.
Direct Provision is a system of “accommodation centers” that are run by for-profit hospitality and catering companies under contract with the Irish government.
Government records, available up until 2017, show that, since the first contracts were signed in 2000, the total bill for the 17 years amounts to €1.1bn, with one family business receiving almost €140m from the State.
It was the government’s original intentions for people to only stay temporarily in provision centers, a maximum stay of six months. Pending the outcome of their asylum application, they would receive restricted access to employment.
Today about 6,000 live in DP centres, including 1,672 kids. Of these 6,000 people, 778 have received refugee status, but are struggling to find somewhere to live in the midst of a housing crisis.
An additional 1,531 people, including 290 kids, are in 36 emergency-accom. centers
An additional 1,531 people, including 290 kids, are in 36 emergency-accom. centers
In 2015 Hiqa found child-protection and -welfare services were “radically inconsistent” across different centres, while the Department of Children and Youth Affairs reported children were stigmatised because of where they lived and felt unsafe sharing a space with single men
In 2019, Tanya Ward of the Children’s Rights Alliance said human-rights abuses in the asylum system are “probably some of the worst I’ve ever witnessed in this country” while warning that staff in direct-provision centres risked becoming institutionalised themselves.
Until recently, most centres did not have kitchen facilities, and residents were forced to eat in canteens at prearranged times. Parents told of putting food in plastic bags for their children who might not make it home in time for the evening meal, and some still don’t allow-
-residents access to food prep areas at certain times- “I leave the centre without a meal because the kitchen is closed at 4am, so all I live on during that day is the lunch voucher I get at UCD.When I get back to the centre at 10pm the kitchen is closed again”- lesley mkoko
Hatch Hall residents mostly make do with a combination of food-hall meals, which are served on a schedule poorly suited to school or work, and toasters, hot plates, and kettles that they sneak into their rooms and hide there. These are discovered and confiscated by the management
So this system is apparently operated and watched by these government bodies. The allowance allocated to the people resident in these ‘services’ is 38.80 for adults and 29.80 for children. People have been living in these centers for over 15 years.
Of the 38 Direct provision centers operating, only 7 are state owned and only 3 were purpose built. All of the other centers are the following:
- repurposed hotels
-repurposed holiday parks
-hostels
-bed and breakfasts
- repurposed CONVENTS
- repurposed hotels
-repurposed holiday parks
-hostels
-bed and breakfasts
- repurposed CONVENTS
So who runs* the other DP centers?
They are run by corporates, who the gov. pay to house people in these centers.
Bridgestock Ltd who run centres that house 500 asylum seekers in Mayo & Sligo town has received €97 million in public money since 2000.
They are run by corporates, who the gov. pay to house people in these centers.
Bridgestock Ltd who run centres that house 500 asylum seekers in Mayo & Sligo town has received €97 million in public money since 2000.
The largest earner in terms of government-contracted accommodation is Mosney Holiday PLC, which, as of 2017, received €139,577,808. Director Phelim McCloskey and his wife Elizabeth are owners of the former Butlin’s holiday camp, the 300-acre Mosney Direct Provision centre
Since 2011, Mosney has been owned by an offshore firm Sonning Unlimited, which is registered in the Isle of Man, meaning that details of its profits from Direct Provision do not have to be published. Although the centre at Mosney has a corporate structure -
-which means that its earnings from state contracts do not have to be disclosed, investigative research has found that since 2002 the centre has raked in ^sum above; making more than it was towards the end of its life as a holiday camp. In 2017, the Mosney center-
-was found to be providing spoiled food,7 years after an investigative report undertaken by the Irish Immigration Support Centre raised the alarm that food in Direct Provision centres is frequently inedible, of poor quality, monotonous, bland and culturally inappropriate.
The Ballaghaderreen centre in Roscommon—which houses 132 asylum seekers mostly of Syrian origin—is run by Next Week & Co, owners of the Abbeyfield Hotel, received payments of €3.16 million in 2018 alone.
Aramark, which was paid almost €6 million last year for operating three state-owned centres—where in total more than 825 asylum seekers are accommodated—saw condemnation of the quality of its services in the centres, including claims of the denial of bread and milk to an ill kid
Aramark is a company that owns many other food provision services which you should boycott if you can. These include:
-avoca
-dundrum food court
-chopped
-many college restaurants/cafes (been previous protests surrounding this)
-avoca
-dundrum food court
-chopped
-many college restaurants/cafes (been previous protests surrounding this)
Fazyard, which runs the Clondalkin Towers Hotel in Dublin, last year received €5.5 million for housing about 500 asylum seekers, bringing its total to €33 million over 12 years
Millstreet Equestrian Services, which provides accommodation for more than 500 asylum seekers in Cork and Waterford and has received a total of €82.5 million in fees from the state, has been beset with institutional maltreatment scandals.
Cork-based businessman Alan Hyde’s Barlow Group received fees of €7.5 million for accommodating asylum seekers in Cork and Waterford in 2018, bringing a total payment from the Irish State to €100 million since they began running direct provision centres across seven properties.
So basically; these companies are profiting millions to provide completely inadequate services to mostly vulnerable people. https://www.thejournal.ie/student-in-direct-provision-says-its-worse-than-jail-4954293-Jan2020/
As a white person I have not experienced racism. I will never experience racism. I made this thread because people are trying to claim Ireland isn’t a racist country. We have institutional bias against refugees, who our government place in direct provision centers. That is racism
