In the Docklands, there’s a burnt-out corner where asylum seekers once slept

On 24 June, anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon –  also known as Tommy Robinson –  posted a video on his Telegram channel.

In it, three homeless men shelter in a corner by concrete stairs. One man limps slowly across the screen.

The short video cuts to a still image of a charred wall. It’s captioned: “Gang of illegal immigrants camped out in Dublin refusing to move leaving locals concerned. The Irish made sure they left …”

On 25 June, an Irish extremist Telegram channel posted the same video with a caption saying locals had “torched” the makeshift camp.

The video isn’t new. A woman first posted a longer version of it on Facebook on 26 April – but without the coda with a charred wall.

The spot in the footage sits at the back of a big block of apartments on Spencer Dock near the National Convention Centre and an opening that leads to the Docklands Dart station.

Last Wednesday, it was clear that there had been a fire there at some point, with a blackened wall and the ashes and detritus of personal belongings.

But it’s unclear what exactly happened, whether it was an arson attack on people who had come to Ireland seeking asylum and found themselves homeless, or an unrelated fire used online to rally and intimidate.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport did not respond to queries sent on Thursday about whether the site was on Irish Rail’s property and if it was aware of any fire.

It hasn’t been reported to An Garda Síochána, said a Garda spokesperson on Thursday, who didn’t say if it plans to open a case.

A spokesperson for the Dublin City Council said the Dublin Fire Brigade had not recorded any incidents for 24 June in that location. They didn’t respond to queries asking if it had before that date.

A Department of Children and Equality spokesperson said the incident hadn’t been reported to its International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) office.

Criminal activity is a policing matter and up to the Gardaí to look into, they said. It can’t comment in detail on something that may end up being the subject of a Garda investigation, the spokesperson said.

Lost in the fire

The longer video in late April was posted about a week after IPAS staff bussed some homeless men from outside the International Protection Office (IPO) on Mount Street in the city centre to tents in Crooksling, out towards Saggart.

In it, a man’s voice accuses the Black homeless men of doing drugs, and hollers abuse at them, as they get to their feet, pick up bags, and stagger away.

“Get the fuck out of here ya, go back on to Mount Street,” he shouts. Someone zooms in on a homeless man wearing jeans and a hoodie with a red duffle bag dangling from his right arm, as he drifts away and becomes smaller.

Last Wednesday, there was a packet of eyelash glue and a broken lighter among the debris.

There were charred pages from a Christian hymn book and other religious scriptures. A white pillow was hidden behind burnt newspapers and what looked like sheets of tarpaulin.

Janet Horner, Green Party councillor for the north inner-city, said she visited the site on 15 May and took a picture of that spot.

She’d stopped by, she said, because one of the residents had questions about who was responsible for the maintenance of certain spots around the apartments.

Horner’s photo shows dumped rubbish and heaps of discarded and flattened boxes. Two bath towels hung from the flight of the stairs. The wall isn’t charred in her photo.

Horner said she’d heard about homeless Irish people living around Spencer’s Dock before, she said. “They are usually tolerated and allowed to live in relative peace.”

On Wednesday, at least two tents were pitched on the grounds of Spencer’s Dock apartments – but not near the site of the fire.

A short walk from the site of the fire, a wheelchair was parked in front of an open tent that sat on a stained mattress next to a few sleeping bags.

Above the wheelchair, someone had scribbled, “Keep out” on a white wall.

What happened?

A spokesperson for homeless charity Dublin Simon Community said its outreach team had not come across asylum seekers sleeping at the location of the fire.

But it’s calling on Dubliners to use the Dublin Rough Sleepers Alerts app to let its outreach team know about homeless people they come across, they said. “Nobody deserves to sleep rough.”

Bulelani Mfaco of the Movement of Asylum Seekers (MASI) said his organisation has not been in touch with any homeless asylum seekers in that location.

But it’s terrifying that asylum seekers are left impoverished and so vulnerable to harm, he said.

MASI wrote to the Minister for Justice a few months ago to express concerns about the safety of people who are homeless and seeking asylum, he said. It hasn’t heard back, and fresh claims of arson adds to the worries, said Mfaco.

“It is disgraceful that months on, we haven’t seen a long-term plan from the government that gets such asylum seekers off the streets,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government has set up barricades along the Grand Canal and on Mount Street to keep people from camping there.

Horner, the Green Party councillor, said it’s upsetting if what happened in the Docklands was a targeted attack on asylum seekers, and troubling that a criminal incident was not reported to the Gardaí at all.

“Everyone, regardless of their status, should have access to justice,” she said.

As of 2 July, 2,228 people seeking asylum didn’t have accommodation, according to official figures.