Dublin Inquirer •

New EU directive aimed at fighting violence against, only some, women

On 24 April, the European Parliament voted to adopt a new directive aimed at fighting violence against women. Irish lawmakers had greenlit Ireland’s opt-in to the directive when it was still a proposal in June 2022. When it passed last month, Fine Gael MEP Francis Fitzgerald – who helped prepare the proposal – said on X that it was a historic day for the women of Europe. But the proposal’s passage came after a political deal which erased a clause that would have banned police from sharing dat
Dublin Inquirer •

A former asylum seeker teaches newcomers how to navigate parenthood under pressure

Lucy Alexia Mncube pulls a plastic bag and a cardboard box out of her car’s boot. She strolls towards the entrance of the Balseskin Reception Centre, past a health centre and a playground. “I’m here for the training. Can I get the keys?” she says, at the counter. She is wearing a polka-dot dress and heels, and her hair is pulled back into a bun. A tall burly guy hands her a key. It opens the door to a small trailer, where the asylum seekers who live in the Balseskin centre can come for classe
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Brushing up: A monument to “Demolition” Dave Conway, who helped clear the way for the Luas’s Red Line

The monument is perched on the south side of the Smithfield stop, from where the Luas snakes towards Tallaght. Its silvery granite surface is a little dirty with bird droppings. But when all the seats in the shelter are taken, it offers an extra one or two. It’s not just a bench, though. It’s an artwork honouring the life of Dave Conway, who was known to his colleagues as “Demolition Dave”. “IN CELEBRATION OF ‘DEMOLITION DAVE’ DAVE CONWAY FRIEND, PARTNER, SON AND DAD. 1963 – 2001”, reads a pl
Dublin Inquirer •

Trying to move out of an asylum shelter, into the brutal private housing market, with holes in her safety net

Oksana Khvostikova pulls her laptop out of a bubble-wrap case and turns it on. Her eyes are red and puffy. On her laptop, “housing discrimination” jumps up at the top of her Google searches. On a Google Drive folder, she has documented a journey from Mariupol to Dublin and the contours of settling in an unfamiliar city. There’s a video of her then-12-year-old son Viktor cheerfully throwing himself on a double-bed in Red Cow Moran Hotel when they first arrived in Ireland. A photo of Viktor eat
Dublin Inquirer •

For parents raising children in direct provision, the fear of the state taking them away is ever-present

Last September, Cebsile Mhlanga was reported to Tusla. “I have a boy that’s six years old,” said Mhlanga recently. She also has a 13-year-old. She’s a lone mum, and they all live together in an asylum shelter in Dublin. One time in September 2023, she had asked her roommate to pick up the younger kid from school because she was stuck at work. The woman had picked him up with her own children, two of them in their mid-teens. At the bus stop, Mhlanga says, the other mum noticed her Leap card wa
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In Balbriggan, a battle over build-to-rent housing stirred up a rumour weaponising asylum seekers and refugees

A little after 1pm on Saturday, Bryn Edwards and his colleagues had just finished handing out copies of a leaflet outside the SuperValu on Balbriggan’s Main Street. The hand-out addressed a narrative swirling since 24 March about the nearby old Tesco shopping centre, a vast and rundown building resting in front of a casino just off Main Street. A week and a half ago, the Sunday Independent ran a story saying that Rhonellen Developments, which owns the building, was looking to switch up its ori
Dublin Inquirer •

Shuttled out of the city ahead of St Patrick’s Day, some homeless men seeking asylum reclaim their lives on Mount Street

Mahmoud Al-Azab wanted out of the camp at Crooksling, he said on Saturday evening. “It was very bad,” said Al-Azab, an unlit cigarette between his fingers. A few guys around him were pitching up new blue and grey tents along the footpath outside the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street Lower. That morning, just a day before St Patrick’s Day, Al-Azab and dozens of other homeless guys seeking asylum were bussed out of the city. “They ordered us to go to South of Dublin,” said A
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In an East Wall asylum shelter, allegations of misconduct highlight wider questions around appropriate staff hiring

In April 2023, a community group in East Wall flagged concerns about alleged staff misconduct at the local asylum shelter. In its letter to the Department of Children and Equality, East Wall Here for All accused two staff members of inappropriate relationships with women living in the old ESB office block on East Wall Road, show documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. In an email dated 2 May 2023, a staff member at Fuel, the event management company running the shelter at the
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Brushing Up: A relic of neighbourly chats hangs in Blanchardstown Library

It hangs high over a spiral staircase in Blanchardstown Library. A colourful quilt of 38 patches, each presenting a different work of art. In the middle, against a red backdrop, it reads “Welcome to Blanch” in big vibrant letters. One patch features a painting of a Black woman’s oval-shaped face wedged between a tricolour and a Nigerian flag. Above her head, it reads “Ola”. The quilt’s origin story dates to August 2001. Patricia Newham and a few other local women dreamt it up. They were danc
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In Portmarnock, a mother fights to win third-level education subsidy for migrant lone parents

The certificate is framed and hung on a narrow wall at the end of a corridor in Kuxi Ghai’s small apartment in Portmarnock. “There’s my little diploma,” she says, pointing at it with a bashful smile. Below the diploma is a list of good deeds that Ghai encourages her young son Ishaan to do – like random acts of kindness. For Ghai, affording the part-time course at the King’s Inns wasn’t easy, she says. And she still needs to come up with the money for another round of training to qualify as a
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For undocumented young people, third-level education remains out of reach

The fear was planted one night when Sumayyah Maghoo was 12 years old. “I couldn’t tell any person that I was undocumented,” she said recently, sitting at the kitchen table in her parents’ home, a cramped apartment in Skerries. At the time, Maghoo’s family were renting in Phibsborough. Cops turned up outside their home in plain clothes, beaming flashlights through their windows and banging on the wooden gate between their home and a neighbour’s, she says. “It was like immigration police, I va
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For asylum seekers from “safe countries”, a greater chance of being left to live in poverty

Melanie Van Rensburg used to run her own shop back in South Africa — her country of birth. “I’m used to working,” she said, recently. But since she arrived in Ireland to seek asylum in August 2023, Van Rensburg hasn’t been able to work. Asylum seekers can file for a work permit five months after lodging an asylum claim. But they can only get one if they haven’t had a decision on their case within six months of filing. If they get a positive decision in that time, none of that really matters.
Dublin Inquirer •

Asylum seekers with physical disabilities journey across the city to get their weekly allowance of €38.80 in person

Boakai Nyehn Jr says he remembers how his legs would quiver as he waited in line at the city’s General Post Office (GPO). “I cannot be standing long on these legs,” says Nyehn, resting his hand on a crutch tucked beside him. Nyehn has a physical disability. He relies on crutches to walk and to stand. Back when he had to make regular trips to the GPO, he was still in the asylum process, he says. Despite living at Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Santry, he had been assigned the O’Connell Street po
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Arson attack on earmarked asylum shelter in Galway hurt government efforts to source more premises, documents show

The arson attack in December on a building in Co. Galway that was supposed to accommodate people seeking asylum had a “significant impact” on offers of premises by property owners to the government to house asylum seekers, show documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The impact was noted in a departmental report from 18 December, just two days after the incident. More than 750 people seeking asylum don’t have accommodation, show official figures as of 30 January. An Garda Sío
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After a string of thefts, students in a Docklands housing block say they’re struggling to get help from guards or management

“Welcome to the crime scene,” says Sankalp Panghal, holding open the grey door to a shared kitchen on the fourth floor of his student housing block. Just inside are a few plastic bags of rubbish. The air smells of spices, and a dirty saucepan rests on the stove. In front of a big television are a leaf-shaped coffee table and two sofas. “It was there,” says Panghal, pointing at the table. That’s where he last saw his PlayStation 5 and controllers. It was 12 September 2023. He had hooked them
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For immigrants travelling from Ireland to Spain, hidden and unexpected visa-related fees can add up quickly

Denis Sitnikov and his partner were planning a trip to the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in Andalusia in southern Spain. “Skiing in the Sierra Nevada mountains was on my wish list for 2024,” he wrote in an email to the Embassy of Spain in Dublin on 3 January. But holding an Irish Residence Permit (IRP) doesn’t unlock the rest of the European Union for immigrants from outside of the zone – like Sitnikov. Ireland is not a party to the Schengen agreement. Sitnikov and his wife need to get
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In Fingal, community crèches are few and far between – and falling

“This room’s for Balbriggan women’s group,” said Mohamed, holding the door. In one corner of the room, there is a pile of folding chairs next to a rolled-up yoga mat. On the wall, sewing instructions are scrawled on a piece of paper. Near the door, Queen Agbonyinma is stooped over a sewing machine. She is making a scarf to go with a dress she’s already seamed for Christmas, she said. Balbriggan Women’s Development Group holds all kinds of classes in this room. Even cooking. But not all the m
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Some students whose immigration status depends on their class attendance rate wrestle with a biometric clock-in system

When strong detergents drip onto her fingers at work, Luciana Machado Teijeira worries, she says, that it might impact her school attendance record. She works as a cleaner. She often heads to her English language class in the city centre after an early shift. The school has a biometric system for recording attendance. That means students have to scan their fingerprints and then their faces to clock in and out of class. But sometimes she gets an error message when she tries to scan her finger,
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As more people seeking asylum are left to sleep rough, it makes it even harder for them to access mental-health care they may need

Warning: This article mentions suicidal ideation and self-harm. If you or somebody you know might need help, Pieta House’s suicide prevention hotline can be contacted 24/7 at 1800 247 247 and the Samaritans’ at 116 123. Samson Ogunniran perches on a concrete platform in front of the International Protection Office (IPO) on Merrion Square. His fingers are intertwined, and their skin is flaking. He’s wearing a black beanie, a long, shabby jacket and black Adidas joggers. At his feet, there’s a
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The Department of Justice downplayed its role in months of travel hassles for Bolivian passengers by airlines, documents suggest

About this time last year, Bolivian citizens travelling to Ireland began to flag more and more episodes of airlines refusing to let them board in places as spread around as Turkey, Brazil, Colombia and Germany. These travellers had said that airline staff were demanding extra documents, ones that weren’t listed anywhere on the Irish government website as being required. When Bolivian officials, and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs on their behalf, asked the Department of Justice what wa
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