Following the appearance of racist far right stickers in Belfast, Lasair Dhearg activists were out in recent days distributing material to make it clear that Belfast is a welcoming community that rejects hate.

The far right are exploiting the housing crisis and blaming it on refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in order to push their racist agenda; completely ignoring the state’s role in driving up the cost of housing and driving down access to services.

The following answers some of their lies.

Claim: “Refugees are all men, there’s no women and children.”

– That’s simply untrue. Asylum and refugee centres are communal living spaces. As in all such places there are some arrangements and segregation rules put in place for the sake of gender privacy, complying with child friendly living arrangements and family life. Gender appropriated facilities must be in place, such as bathrooms and baby changing rooms.

– Some facilities, especially those used for emergency accommodation, have no proper facilities to cater for all types of people (single people, families, children).

– Some of these facilities use bunk beds in a room to accommodate multiple same gender people together.

– Some centres have mostly women/children, some are mixed and families, others single people only.

– For example, just because East Wall had a bus full of men does not mean asylum seekers in Ireland are mostly men. These men are picked from other, sometimes better equipped centres to make room for families and women with children. Half of the refugees and asylum seekers are women and children.

– The men who do arrive alone, in most cases are not single men, but unaccompanied men with families. If you were in a similar situation, it’s very unlikely your family is going to send your 90 year old grandmother to make a treacherous journey to another country. Once said person arrives they are subject to the current structures in place for people seeking asylum, getting a job, hope for reunification with their family and so forth.

Claim: “They aren’t vetted.”

– Non-EU Migrants: Must have valid visa/work permit issued by the Irish state. This is a detailed and strict process.

– UN Program Refugees: Are vetted and security checked by the UN and the Irish government.

– EU Settlement Refugees: Are vetted and security checked by the Irish government.

– Asylum seekers: Every asylum seeker arriving in Ireland registers with the state at the port of arrival. They don’t have a choice. They also register with the office dealing with asylum applications, IPO (International Protection Office), and the Gardaí. They go through a detailed vetting and interview process as part of their application. The state checks details of their past lives, etc.

Claim: “Crime, our community is worried.”

– There is no evidence of crime increasing due to asylum seekers and refugees.

– These centres are access controlled and people can’t come in and out as they wish.

Claim: “Government is not consulting us.”

– The government must be more upfront and transparent. They have a terrible practice of not consulting working class communities on ANY development.

– They are doing a bad job but no one has a veto on who becomes their neighbour. People move in and out of estates all the time and there’s no consultation process.

Claim: “We are not against asylum seekers, we are against the government’s way of doing things.”

– Protesting at the asylum accommodation centres where people are forced to stay chanting “GET THEM OUT!” is not going to hurt the government, only those inside living in fear.

– The best response is to take part in housing and other social justice campaigns and demand HOMES FOR ALL.

Claim: “House the Irish first! Why are they given these places while Irish families are on the waiting list?”

– First of all because these places wouldn’t be suitable for families who need permanent homes.

– Asylum seekers are not on any housing list and are not given any homes.

– Over 95% of homeless people, like refugees, are in temporary/emergency accommodation in the 26 counties. Both are accommodated in hotels and other makeshift centres. A homeless person who has proof of temporary accommodation is entitled to social welfare (€220 p/w) whereas their refugee counterparts aren’t (€40 p/w). As for those of us who are rough sleeping on the streets, in 2022 this number in the 26 counties averaged at roughly 120 people. You must take into account the life of a rough sleeper is a complicated one. Many are barred from services due to things like excessive violent behaviour, many don’t want to go into certain services for safety issues. Other individuals simply just stay on the street. Whilst we wish for a warm bed for all in our state, the lack of resources available to rough sleepers lie completely with the government and not with refugees.

There are enough empty houses in the state to house everybody. There is enough money and resources to build public housing. But the political leaders are not interested in the wellbeing of ordinary people. Instead, they continue to look after the interests of landlords. By reducing access to housing for all, they drive up demand, which in turn drives up profits for those in control of the housing market.

There is a problem with adequate housing, but it’s not because of too much demand due to immigration. The problem is not too many people, Ireland is not full. Our population stood at 8.5 million before An Gorta Mór (‘The Famine’), a period in which our population was decimated and has yet to fully recover. At present the population across Ireland’s Thirty Two Counties stands at   less than 7 million.

The government is not building enough public housing on public lands – like they did in the 40’s through to the 80’s. House prices and rent are not  ‘affordable’ – they’re ridiculous! These are hiked by profiteering landlords. Across the 32 counties of Ireland there are 103,218 waiting on a home while 188,000 homes lie vacant. Refugees did not create this housing crisis. Direct your anger at the correct people and punch up, not down.

Refugees welcome, racists out!

Much of the above information is credited to ‘United Against Racism’.