The camp of migrant tents on the Dublin side of the Leeson Street Bridge grew from 15 to more than 40 over the weekend, Irish media reported.
The tents, some of which are covered with tarpaulins to protect the occupants from rain, are on a footpath opposite the bank of the Grand Canal, which has been fenced off to prevent similar camps.
While on Friday there were 15 tents in the camp, this morning the number had risen to 42, stretching from Lower Leeson Street to Wilton Terrace. The number of homeless international protection applicants is expected to reach 2,000 in the coming days.
On Friday, figures from the Department of Integration showed there were 1,966 international protection applicants without accommodation.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said Irish people were compassionate and “full of common sense” towards migration. He also claimed at the RDS elections count centre:
I believe that people right across this country are two things when it comes to migration: I believe they’re compassionate and I believe they’re full of common sense. And they want to see government policy bring those two things together. They want to help people in need. They recognise the benefit of migration to our economy and society. But they also want to know that there’s a common sense approach in terms of rules, in terms of welfare, in terms of deportations, processing times. And I absolutely expect that the people in this country will want to see me as their Taoiseach work with colleagues to manage this situation and to put a sustainable migration system in place and that’s what I intend to do.
Camp on the Leeson Street Bridge
The camp on the Leeson Street Bridge is the latest to be set up on May 1 in a major relocation operation on Lower Mount Street, Grattan Street and adjacent side streets and alleys. Meanwhile, the authorities set up barricades in the streets to prevent the re-erection of tents.
However, at the time the tents were being removed, there was already a tent on the canal bank next to the Mount Street Bridge. Over the next week this camp grew to about 100 people and was removed on Thursday, May 9.
Almost immediately, an encampment began to unfold at the Baggot Street Bridge opposite the Mespil Hotel.
This camp grew to over 100 tents and many of them were removed, but there was not enough room for all the migrants and about 40 tents remained. Their numbers increased again to fill the space left by the relocation and the camp was completely relocated on the morning of 29 May.
Most of the migrants were taken to government facilities, mostly tented, at Crooksling, Citywest and the former Central Psychiatric Hospital site in Dundrum.
At this stage the fencing erected to prevent further encampments extended from Clanwilliam Place at the Grand Canal dock to Portobello Road between Portobello Bridge, Rathmines, and Emmett Bridge, Harolds Cross. This fence remains in place to this day.
Waterways Ireland recently stated that the cost of installing hired fencing along sections of the Grand Canal from May 1 is estimated at €36,000.
People’s safety is at risk
The company said it had serious concerns about the health and safety of people staying in tents by the canal and the impact of the lack of sanitation.
A spokesperson for the company said it continues to work with multi-agency partners for the benefit of all stakeholders and will consult with partners and local residents on replacing the temporary fencing with environmentally sensitive landscaping solutions that are in keeping with the canal corridor and surrounding urban landscape. He also added:
This is a very dynamic and sensitive situation and a timeline for completion of these landscaping works is not currently available.
