Families in direct provision in Mayo town served with eviction notice

SIX families living in direct provision in Ballyhaunis have been ordered to leave their accommodation.

In recent months, people living in direct provision in Ireland who have been granted international protection status, including Mayo, have been ordered to vacate their accommodation by July 5.

Cllr Alma Gallagher, a newly-elected county councillor from Ballyhaunis, told the Annual General Meeting of Claremorris-Swinford Municipal District that six families living in the former convent in Ballyhaunis had been served with an eviction notice. An exemption has been granted to those with medical conditions and people over 65. 

The letter from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability and Integration and Youth sent to those who have been granted international protection status states: “We do not have the capacity to continue to accommodate persons once they have received status to remain in Ireland…Owing to the urgent need we must now ask you to move to independent alternative accommodation in the community on Friday July 5, 2024.”

ActionAid Ireland has called on the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, to revoke eviction letters sent in recent months to mothers with children living in International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) in Mayo, saying it could put them on the streets or into emergency accommodation in the next ten days.

ActionAid CEO, Karol Balfe, said it was ‘simply not acceptable to ask vulnerable women and children to be out of their accommodation’. 

“The threat of eviction and the looming deadline of July 5 is causing high levels of stress for the parents and their children. For years the families have tried to integrate into their communities through their schools and local sports clubs, and they are heartbroken at the prospect of facing another move to an unknown place,” she stated. 

“ActionAid is supporting a small group of these women in Mayo, Wicklow, and Cork. They have already suffered huge trauma and have been uprooted from their homes and forced to flee to Ireland in the first place due to conflict or crisis. They are devastated that they may have to move their children from school, and disrupt friendships and education.”

Ms Balfe said the reality is given the current accommodation crisis getting an alternative place to live may prove impossible. 

“As single parents, not from Ireland and being people of colour, the challenges they face are compounded. There are several stories of landlords extorting people trying to leave Direct Provision frantically before July 5 because they know they are desperate.”

International protection applicants living in direct provision are entitled to accommodation and a weekly allowance of €38.80 for each adult and €29.80 for each child. They are entitled to work in Ireland if a decision on their application for international protection has not been granted within six months. 

At the end of April, there were over 5,000 people with the right to live and work in Ireland still living in direct provision.