10 July 2018 - Irish Refugee Council 2017 Impact Report highlights effect of the housing crisis on people seeking asylum

Nick Henderson, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council (IRC) said,

“Our Impact Report shows the broad range of work we do as an organisation. We assisted more than 3000 people over the year on a wide variety of issues, the most challenging of which was accessing accommodation; both for people in the asylum procedure and those who have status and are trying to leave Direct Provision.”

Claire Tadla, Drop in Centre Coordinator said,

“One of the biggest challenges we faced over 2017 was assisting people who were either homeless or at risk of homelessness because they were not able to access Direct Provision accommodation. The reason for this was the lack of free beds in Direct Provision. By the end of the year there were only 134 vacancies and an occupancy rate of 92.6%.We worked with at least 30 people in this situation, often vulnerable people who have come to Ireland seeking protection and who have a right to be supported by the State while their protection application is being considered. Often these clients had little alternative or recourse to resources and slept rough. This trend has continued in to 2018.”

Nick Henderson continued,

“Other highlights of the year included running over 20 Youth Cafés for young people from 17 different countries. 95 people were given guidance about education access and 36 people were given financial assistance for course fees, transport costs and course materials. Our housing work secured accommodation for 200 people and we accommodated more than 50 people. Our Law Centre gave detailed advice and representation to people in their application for protection; 80% of decisions received in 2017 were successful. The IRC’s resettlement work primarily assisted more than 1500 Syrian, Iraqi and Palestinian people. Public engagement grew in 2017 with over 3550 new people engaged.”

Download 2017 Impact Report