Asylum seekers living in a hotel in Co Clare insist they feel safe and happy there - despite the blockade outside their door.
Protesters continued to block the road to the Magowa Hotel in Inch on Wednesday after Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said he won’t close the accommodation - despite the protests.
Meanwhile, speaking to this paper from the blockade, local Fine Gael Councillor Mary Howard insisted that the protest is “not racist” and claimed it was motivated out of concern for the fact that there are no amenities in the area for the 29 remaining asylum seekers.
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“I just think it’s the inappropriate place.
“It is absolutely not racism. People have this thing that we’re barricaded up here. We’re not, anybody can get in.
“We’re just protecting our neighbourhood.That’s all that they’re doing,” she said.
And after a meeting with local TDs and Senators in the morning, Mr O’Gorman said he would be open to meeting protestors, but said he could not move the asylum seekers from the hotel.
About 20 protestors stood outside the hotel and at each end of the small road on Wednesday - blocking access with traffic cones as the row over the asylum seeker’s being there now spilled into its second day.
Despite the best efforts of reporters on the ground, including this paper, none of the protestors agreed to speak about why they were there.
However following a meeting in the Intreo Centre in Ennis, a bus load of asylum seekers returned to the hotel - watched on by the protestors outside.
This paper then approached and spoke to some of them - with the men insisting that they were here to start new lives - and were not phased by the protest.
Sultan Muhammad Nasiri, who is from Afghanistan, told this paper that he believed he was welcome in the community by most people.
“I am happy and we who are living here, most are happy here because everything is good,” he told us.
“They (Intero) told us they will prepare everything for you. We went into the city by bus and they said they will prepare everything for us.
“They are really lovely people. The protest will be gone in a few days inshallah,” he said.
Speaking about the community, Mr Nasiri, who says life in Afghanistan was “difficult” said:
“They are welcoming. We don’t have any issue with people. They are good people.
“Especially I like Ireland. I try to come here live here. We don't have any issue here. We feel safe. Some people say we want to leave but we decide to live here.
“Like everyone I want to work here and start life here.”
Meanwhile another man named Ismail, who is from Somalia, also told how he just wants to start a new life here - and added that the protest is nothing compared to the violence he says he witnessed in his home country.
“I got too many stories but I can’t tell.
“I seen everything. This is easy (this) protest. Kill somebody, someone is dying, (in Somalia) that’s normal business.
“I seen a lot of things. This is nothing for me,” he said.
Their comments came after local councillor Mary Howard was the only person to speak on behalf of the protesters.
“One woman last night said to me if this was 30 or 70 Irish men they would feel the exact same and that is what has resonated with me.
“There is one woman I spoke to here, an elderly lady, she doesn’t have mobile phone coverage.
“She feels very vulnerable, she's on her own. That was the one thing that came across with anyone I spoke to - vulnerability,” she said.
“We’re out here in paradise. This is beautiful. We all aspire to live in a place like this. But there isn’t even a footpath, there isn’t even a street light.
“They are over a kilometer from the main road. They are a further kilometer to get into Inch itself, which isn’t even a village. It hasn’t even got a shop.
“It’s a townland we’re in. So it’s totally the wrong place,” she claimed.
Ms Howard said the protesters largely feel that there are no amenities for asylum seekers in their area - and that the accommodation they have been given is too small anyway.
The asylum seekers are being housed in small bungalow-type accommodation next to the hotel.
“They’re young men. There is nothing here for them to do. And if you want to make it complicated, I was told last night that the kitchens and the sitting rooms were taken out of these houses and there’s just mattresses and beds inside.
“I’m sorry but if we’re talking about human rights, that’s inappropriate.
“You know we wouldn’t do that in prisons in this country. So they are being packed in there like sardines and that’s wrong.
“They are human beings and they need a place to live and we get there and understand it.
“You don’t put 30 single young men into a squashed house like that, that they can’t even hang out during the day because obviously the houses are full of beds.
“They are small two bed holiday lodges between 10 and 12 grown men inside there. That’s going to lead to all sorts of tensions and aggressions,” she said.
Earlier in the day Minister Roderic O’Gorman told an online meeting of TDs and Senators, that due to the pressures on the State’s reception and integration system, he could not close the centre.
But a spokesman for Mr O’Gorman said he had “listened to concerns raised by local representatives, particularly around transport links and communications with the local community. He agreed to continue dialogue and work towards a solution that will work for all concerned.”
Meanwhile Fianna Fail TD Cathal Crowe said on RTÉ's News at One that he believed the hotel, which is not yet in use as accommodation as it lacks a fire cert, is expected to be used to house asylum seekers in the coming period.
It comes after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said communities do not get a “veto” over who can live in their area amid the protests.
“Nobody gets to say who can or cannot live in their area. And we can’t have that kind of situation. But I think we shouldn’t dismiss concerns that people have about their locality.
“People do want to know what’s happening. They want certain assurances and we have a responsibility to do that. But that doesn’t mean that anyone can say that certain types of people can’t live in their area. We can’t tolerate that,” he said.
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