What’s the best way to tell area residents about plans for a new asylum shelter nearby?

Damien Farrell has been a community activist in Dublin 8 for years, but when a plan for an asylum shelter in his area took shape, he only heard about it by chance.

“Effectively, I read about South Circular Road on WhatsApp,” said Farrell, who stood as an independent in the area in the last local election.

Once he’d heard, though, he talked to fellow members of Dublin Communities Against Racism (DCAR) and they got to work.

They printed leaflets, met outside an off-licence on South Circular Road and went door-knocking in the neighbourhood, last week.

They wanted to chat with people about the plans before anti-immigrant scaremongering about it takes off. Most people were receptive at the doors, and they’ll do it again, too, he says.

A chance encounter on WhatsApp is how this information trickles out to a lot of people now, Farrell says.

The Department of Children and Equality, which offers shelter to people seeking asylum – through its International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) –  while their cases are considered, has been avoiding direct communication with locals, he says.

Instead, it relies on elected officials to disseminate the information in the way they see fit. But often, that happens long after anti-immigrant politicians and activists have sought out and found the early moves towards setting up a centre, and spread the word in their networks, Farrell and others say.

And when plans have finally solidified enough that the department is ready to share them, and shares it with elected officials, that information might not reach all the people in the neighbourhood where a shelter is planned for.

Some elected officials might be reluctant to share the information widely, dreading a backlash. Or might share it with locals who aren’t super concerned about the issue anyway.

“The whole process is fraught with problems. It’s chaotic. It’s not transparent,” said Daithí Doolan, a Sinn Féin councillor for the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area.

Instead, the department should proactively tell locals about plans early on, says Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu, who represents the Pembroke electoral area in Dublin city.

And they should come with promises to invest in communities so that there are enough resources to share with new arrivals, says Diarmuid “Dougie” Mac Dubhghlais, a community activist in Finglas, who ran in the last general election as an independent.

In February, the new Minister for Children and Equality, Fianna Fáil’s Norma Foley, told the Daíl that IPAS’s community engagement team works with locals, shelter providers and elected officials to offer details and field questions.

But Foley mentioned security concerns, too, as a factor in how the department goes about this. “Instances of very serious security threats to people and IPAS centres can influence the level of engagement and the time available to engage before a centre opens,” said Foley.

There are plans to change which part of the government deals with providing shelter for people awaiting asylum decisions, and how that’s done – but for now, the system remains the same.

Big changes take time, and in the meantime, the current system needs improvements, Farrell, Chu, Mac Dubhghlais and others say.

Seeking information

In the last government, Green Party TD Roderic O’Gorman served as Minister at the Department of Children and Equality, overseeing IPAS.

Chu, the Green Party councillor, says that after her party leader was no longer in charge, her name was taken off a list of elected officials who got word about new centres.

But they re-added her when she asked, Chu says. They responded nicely, and said, “‘Oh, I don’t know why you dropped off from the list,’” said Chu by phone on Saturday.

Her impression was that maybe the focus had shifted to notifying TDs – rather than councillors – because she’d seen they were still getting information.

Also, maybe there was some confusion around who does what, as the Department of Justice gradually assumes IPAS’s duties as planned, she says.

Ivana Bacik, the Labour TD and the leader of the party, said that even as a TD, she has to chase IPAS for answers in response to mounting emails from constituents who’d read rumours online about new centres.

“If I contact them, they’d give me information,” said Bacik, by phone recently. “I would prefer it if I got the information proactively.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Children and Equality said that since some offers don’t make it to the appraisal stage, engagement can happen later. “When a property is closer to being brought into use or approved for use,” they said.

At that point, they’re available “to provide information to local representatives about IPAS accommodation and respond to local queries about accommodation centres”, the spokesperson said.

It lets local elected representatives know ahead of time about people moving into a centre, they said.

It has also worked with communities that have volunteered to welcome new arrivals and helped them settle in. “We are grateful for this support,” the spokesperson said.

Since October 2023 – when its community engagement team took shape – it has opened over 120 new IPAS centres with the team’s aid. “Providing information and engaging with local elected representatives and community leaders.”

Getting ahead of it

That the information about new shelters comes out late, only once the plan is solidified, can have consequences.

Anti-immigrant Telegram channels or X accounts are packed with posts about exemption applications or approvals, presenting them as a sure thing.

Property owners can apply for an exemption so they don’t have to get planning permission to change the use of a building to an IPAS centre.

These applications for exemptions are publicly available in councils’ online planning databases.

Sometimes, anti-immigrant activists post drone footage of a dilapidated site that’s been granted an exemption. One video like that shows the words: “1000 more male migrants for Ballyfermot?” flashing in red over a video of a site.

IPAS might not even take up some of these offers, even if the council grants an exemption, says Mac Dubhghlais, the community activist in Finglas.

But anti-immigrant activists might throw a random number on it, say it’s a sure thing, and run with it, Mac Dubhghlais says.

This kind of thing is especially dangerous if IPAS initially denies there are plans for an asylum shelter at a location, and the anti-immigrant activists turn out to be right and a centre opens, he says.

“If [locals] see that [anti-immigrant activists] knew long beforehand, whatever you say, they’re gonna go, ‘That’s bullshit’”, he says.

Joe Mooney, a community activist and local historian in East Wall, says these application notices are on the council’s website anyway.

Keeping mum about them because they may not go ahead arouses conspiratorial thinking. “It looks like it’s underhanded and secretive,” he said.

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, and Chu, the Green Party councillor, said similar.

Chu says having people at IPAS who actively post information, rather than responding to allegations made by anti-immigrant accounts, is the way to go.

“In many cases, the rumour mill kicks in and suddenly people see that site as being an IPAS centre site,” said Doolan.

Says Chu: “I used to say to Roderic [O’Gorman], that they really need to up their game on this, but they don’t have the capacity.”

Sometimes, officials notify her of something, and she’s like, oh yeah, I saw that on Telegram like two months ago, said Chu, laughing.

Talk and give back

In 2023, Mac Dubhghlais, the community activist in Finglas, attended a community meeting with its officials.

They wanted to talk to locals about the possibility of opening a centre in a former Bargaintown warehouse between Finglas and Glasnevin.

The IPAS officials seemed unable to field thorny questions, says Mac Dubhghlais. “It was useless, it was a waste of an hour of my time.”

But in the end, he says, it did count as a consultation, he says, throwing his hands up to make air quotes around the word.

Chu, the Green Party councillor, says that although meaningful engagement is vital, that doesn’t mean locals can reject shelters and beds that people seeking asylum desperately need.

“You have a right to voice your opinion, but you have no right to veto here,” she said.

That centre in Fingals didn’t open, says Mac Dubhghlais, not that he was hoping for that outcome.

He is and was hoping that IPAS sets up meetings with locals to actively listen and promise to invest in communities so that there are enough resources to share with new arrivals, he said.

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor – whose party has said that the government should avoid opening centres in under-resourced areas – says that he understands the sentiment behind that policy. It’s important to focus on bulking up resources.

“They need to work with communities to inject cash, resources, and funding if an IPAS centre is going into it,” he said.

The number of people living in IPAS centres in city neighbourhoods is relatively small.

Of the roughly 593,000 people living in Dublin city, a little over 3,400 of them have beds in IPAS shelters right now.

Still, Mooney, the community activist in East Wall, says most locals want reassurances. “The vast majority of people in the communities, I would describe them as not racist, but not particularly anti-racist, if you know what I mean.”

That means, he says, people who aren’t consciously thinking about notions of racism, the harm it unleashes, and ways to stop it. They aren’t anti-racist activists, he says.

Just everyday people who want to live comfortably in their community, Mooney says.

“I think that would be the balance you’d be dealing with in any community.”

Mac Dubhghlais, the Finglas local, says people who have tumbled down the rabbit hole and embraced “white supremacist” ideology are still in the minority.

Just recently, he was handing out donated Easter eggs to local hospitals and care homes. “And some fella come over and says, ‘I hope you only gave them to the Irish’”.

Those people, he says, there’s no talking to them. The focus should be on stopping them from bringing others along with them, said Mac Dubhghlais.

Some people’s concerns around sharing a neighbourhood with men seeking asylum boil down to harmful stereotypes that they’re more likely to be violent, based on their ethnicity, religion or their asylum-seeking status.

Some argue, anonymously, that their presence would lower the value of their property.

Anti-immigrant accounts and websites mine the news for episodes of crime involving immigrants to confirm stereotypes to their audience and themselves.

Mooney, the community activist in East Wall, says that some locals are just responding to fearmongering they’ve seen online.

Like in East Wall, he says. There were protests in late 2022 and early 2023 against plans to turn an old ESB building into an asylum shelter.

But “Everything is calm now,” Mooney says. “Most people don’t have a major issue with [the asylum shelter], but it could’ve started like that.”

Keeping safe

Chu, the Green Party councillor, says promises to give back to communities are vital to get them to embrace their new neighbours.

But she is hoping that the government also sticks to its plans for using state-owned asylum centres as a way to wipe out another inflammatory talking point that creeps up on anti-immigrant channels all the time – sometimes with conspiratorial overtones.

“The overall argument that people are profiting from this, which they are, let’s be honest,” she said.

In a new accommodation roadmap – published in March 2024 – the government promised to ramp up its use of state-owned asylum shelters. It pledged to deliver 14,000 “state-owned permanent beds” between 2024 and 2028.

Beyond all that, Chu understands IPAS’s security concerns, too. She knows IPAS officials who got a ton of abuse when they tried to talk with locals, she says.

There has been arson after arson at sites earmarked – or rumoured to be earmarked – to become IPAS centres. And in Coolock, and in Newtownmountkennedy in County Wicklow, protestors against asylum shelters turned to violence.

The Department of Children and Equality has said in response to Freedom of Information requests from journalist Ken Foxe that it won’t publish the names of IPAS staff anymore.

Mooney, the community activist in East Wall, says if things are so bad that IPAS officials are afraid, it’s partly because they didn’t do the right thing in late 2022 when they turned the old office block on East Wall Road into an asylum shelter on short notice.

They didn’t talk to people when there was a chance, he says. “It was probably a week and a half, maybe even two weeks, before leaflets were going around from the department, explaining what was happening with the building.”

By the time they did that, there had been a good few protests outside the place, he says.

Things have rolled downhill in the country ever since, says Mooney. It empowered hardcore and organised extremists to try to replicate similar chaos in other communities, he says.

“We still haven’t come back from that. We now have politicians who have been elected on the basis of being anti-immigrant,” he says.

If there are people who are violent and a physical danger to civil servants, he says, the state should deal with them. It should invest in protecting its officials, too, Mooney says.

“The state has a responsibility to provide security for all in the country,” he says.

Direct communication with locals should happen, and, of course, elected officials should be included in these discussions too, Mooney said.

Mac Dubhghlais, the Finglas local, says the bottom line is that the government is reluctant to invest in things like local resources and security. It might see them as wasteful, he says, but in the long haul, they are profoundly valuable.

Instead, he said, “it scapegoats immigrants”.