A total of 135 Ukrainian women and children, who have been accommodated at Hotel Killarney on Cork Road since last March, have been given 48 hours’ notice that they are being transferred to Co Mayo to make way for 192 male international protection asylum seekers coming to Killarney.
There has been a furious community and political backlash to the plan and anger that the men, of various nationalities, were already moved in to the facility at the weekend just as the women and children were learning of their fate.
The vast majority of the children there are already enrolled in local primary and secondary schools have made friends and are settled while many of their mothers and older siblings are working in Killarney or attending courses at the Kerry College.
A letter sent to the Ukrainian residents in Hotel Killarney from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth – a copy of which has been seen by KillarneyToday.com – stressed that it was no longer possible to accommodate them at that location and they were being moved to Hotel Westport in Mayo at a time to be decided this Wednesday.
The letter said the department is responsible for providing suitable short-term accommodation for those seeking temporary protection arriving in Ireland under the EU Temporary Protection Directive who indicate that they require assistance.
The Ukrainian refugees have been told that should they refuse the offer of being relocated to alternative accommodation, they cannot remain where they are now, they will not receive further offers from the department and they will be refused access to the transit hub in CityWest in Dublin.
They were advised that they were free to source their own accommodation if they so wished and if they have children of school-going age they should contact the Tulsa support services.
The matter is to be raised in the Dáil by Kerry TD Brendan Griffin this Tuesday and he is to seek an immediate reversal of the decision while Mayor of Killarney, Cllr Niall Kelleher, has also urged the government not to proceed with the plan and requested that common sense should prevail.
“The Ukrainian people are being moved around like pawns on a chessboard,” he complained.
Killarney Asylum Seekers Initiative Chairperson, Sheila Casey, said 25 of the children affected are attending St Oliver’s National School in Ballycasheen and others are enrolled in St Brendan’s College, Killarney Community College and St Brigid’s Secondary School while many of the mothers are working or studying locally.
“The families have integrated into the local community are completely distraught that they have to move, particualrly at such short notice,” she told KillarneyToday.com.
“They were among the first of the Ukrainians to arrive in Killarney. They were very traumatised when they got here last March or April but they have become part of the community,” she said.
“They are very sad. They are very upset, particularly when it is known that there is suitable accommodation for them in Killarney and more Ukrainian nationals are being moved to locations in Kerry as we speak,” Ms Casey said.
She said six of the women are engaged with the Killarney Asylum Seekers Initiative (KASI) schools’ project helping with school meals and other matters and they are playing really valuable roles.
An emergency meeting of interested parties was held in Hotel Killarney on Monday night and an immediate appeal is to be made to the government not to proceed with the plan.
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