Craic On

Asylum seekers for Moville

A few months back Moville citizens were told that 100 Asylum Seekers would be coming to stay at the Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville. Moville has a population of just under 1,500. That means it will have the biggest concentration of Asylum seeker in the British Isles – by far.

In the UK in 2018 there were 0.5 Asylum seekers per every 1,000 people resident in the UK. Across the 28 countries of the EU there were 1.4 Asylum Seekers for every 1,000 people.

In Moville there will be 67 Asylum Seekers for every 1,000 people in Moville. Surely that’s far too many. If Moville was allocated Asylum Seekers according to the EU average they would be given two.

So, how does Moville compare to cities and towns in the UK?

Top Ten Asylum Seeker Cities in UK

Here are the top 10 cities in the UK for the proportion of Asylum Seekers. Remember Moville will have one Asylum Seekers for every 15 citizens of Moville.:-

1. Middlesborough which has one refugee for every 152 people in the city
2. Glasgow has one refugee for every 200 citizens
3. Rochdale has one refugee for every 204 citizens
4. Cardiff has one for every 244 citizens
5. Stockton-on-Tees has one for every 245 citizens
6. Bolton has 271 citizens per refugee
7. Swansea has 286 citizens per refugee
8. Liverpool has 304
9. Newport has one refugee per 316
10. Oldham has one refugee per 335 citizens

Yet Moville will have one refugee for every 15 of its citizens. That’s 10 times more, proportionally than Middlesborough which is the city / town in the UK with the most Asylum Seekers per head of population.

Asylum Seeker Assimilated Across the UK

The reason that the Asylum Seekers are spread out across the EU is because of assimilation problems. That’s why they are spread out across the UK too.

However, assimilation has not been taken into account at all when allocating Asylum Seekers in Ireland. There would not be a problem if they were spread across the country.

However, uniquely, this is not the way it works in Ireland. It’s purely a bean count here.

Competitive Tender Process

It just goes out to a competitive tender here. The hotels who put in the lowest bids win. That’s it in a nutshell. The needs of the Asylum seekers (who would prefer to be closer to Dublin) and the worries of local residents in Moville are not taken into account.

If you own a hotel and put in the lowest bid then you can have as many of them as you can put up. The chances of assimilation are of no consequence.

Removing Asylum Seekers from Dublin

There used to be 57 places in Dublin who took in Asylum Seekers and now there are 3. That’s because Dublin hotels and B&B’s can’t afford to compete on cost with far flung places in the country.

This will mean that virtually all Asylum Seekers will be in far flung parts of the country far from major population centres (and TDs) like Dublin.

Asylum Seeker Interviews in Dublin

This does not suit the Asylum seekers as they must travel often to Dublin for their Asylum interviews. The ones here will not legally be able to travel through the North so it will take them even longer to get to Dublin. This is a totally cynical attempt by the powers that be to get the Asylum Seekers out of sight and out of mind – and at the lowest possible cost. The chances of assimilation are not a factor to them at all.

Moville is about to become the place in the British Isles with the highest concentration of Asylum Seekers. Indeed they will have 10 times as many per head of population as the next highest – Middlesborough.

Coping With Asylum Seekers

The people of Moville are prepared to do their bit. They are not anti-refugee. They sympathise with the problems they have had in their lives. They would like to help them. There used to be a dozen staying in the hostel in Moville previously. There were a few problems – but not too many that couldn’t be coped with.

Asylum Seekers Not to Blame

In these circumstances people often blame the wrong people. It’s not the fault of the refugees. If Moville was being bombed incessantly I’m sure many people here would be looking to get out. Indeed when I lived in London I met many people from Northern Ireland who were fleeing The Troubles there. I even shared a flat with one.

The Asylum Seekers seek two things. they want to escape the troubles back home and they want an opportunity to do well in their new home country.

Caiseal Mara Hotel Owners

I don’t blame the Caiseal Mara owners either. They believed in Moville when local people didn’t. No one from the town made any bids for it at the auction in Dublin.The new owners moved their family and their lives up here.

And they lost a whole load of money because of it. You can’t blame them for trying to recoup some of that.

Local Politicians

I don’t blame local politicians. They were not consulted and only hear about this fait accompli at the same times as the rest of us.

European Union

I don’t blame the EU. Across Europe they have spread out the Asylum seekers so that there will be fewer problems of assimilation.

Central Government At Fault

The fault lies with the central Government in Ireland who are cynically dumping a hundred asylum seekers on a town with 1500 people – because that was the cheapest option.

They were very sneaky about it too. They didn’t give the local health authorities and the local schools any advance notice of it. That meant that they could not apply in advance for any extra help from the Government to cope with all those.

They wanted to spring it on Moville so that there was less chance of anyone objecting to it.

Government Ministers to Blame

Specifically the ones to blame are Charlie Flanagan, the Justice and Equality Minister and David Stanton the Equality and Integration (I kid you not) Minister. They are the ones who have implemented the policy not to integrate the asylum seekers – and to sell them to the lowest bidder.

They are going to give Moville the highest density of Asylum Seekers population in the whole of the British Isles – and by a long, long way – and just to save money.

What cynicism!