Sick of abuse, assault and homelessness in Dublin, a Palestinian man who’d sought asylum here wants to go home

On Monday morning, Abdulraheem Abumotawi walked distractedly into a Café Nero on O’Connell Street in a khaki jacket and jeans.

His eyes are half-open like he could use a few more hours of sleep.

He wants out of here, he says, talking about what he’s been through after coming to Ireland from Jenin in the West Bank to seek asylum.

While sleeping rough, strangers have cursed at him and told him to leave the country, he says. He gestures with his middle finger: “Return. Fuck you.”

He and his friends have been harassed and assaulted again and again, he says. A hospital letter on his phone says he had been admitted after an alleged assault and that he is diabetic.

He pulls up a social media post from the National Party – with a photo of himself and his friends outside a Chinese takeaway in Finglas.

“Our picture,” he says.

“Foreigners hanging around Finglas village,” says the post.

After living in in Citywest transit hub and then Balseskin reception centre for a while, and then being offered a bed in an overcrowded room in Dundalk and losing it following a complaint, and then facing harassment on the streets, Abumotawi says he has decided he has had enough.

“You want me to return?” he says. “I return.”

But, after withdrawing his asylum application, he has found that returning isn’t going to be that easy.

Abumotawi is stuck between two realities. A hard edge of hostility towards asylum seekers in Ireland encourages him to leave, while the real dangers at home mean the International Organisation for Migration won’t help him to return.

From Palestine

Abumotawi is one of a growing number of asylum applicants in Ireland with Palestinian nationality or Jordanian nationality – who are sometimes Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

But his application has now been withdrawn, says an email dated 22 August from the International Protection Office (IPO).

That means he has lost the right to a bed and weekly asylum allowance. The IPO gave him his Palestinian passport back too.

Abumotawi had planned to go home with the help of the IOM, which runs a voluntary return and reintegration programme for the Department of Justice.

Until an email from the IOM to Abumotawi told him it “is not currently facilitating assisted voluntary return to Palestine due to the current situation there”.

That means he’d have to find the money to buy his own plane ticket home, and he doesn’t have the money for that.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said it can’t comment on individual cases, but most people without immigration papers in Ireland have the option to leave if they want.

Applications for voluntary returns do take into account the safety of the country someone wants to go back to, they said.

People may not be able to return to some places or regions if “the return would pose a threat to the safety of returning migrants”, the spokesperson said.

A hospital letter notes that Abumotawi had told staff that he wanted to leave for Belgium as soon as possible.

But now, after everything he’s been through in Europe, he says, he just wants away to Palestine. “I don’t want any other country than my country, Palestine.”

Talk vs action

Lawyers and activists point to the gap between the Irish government rhetoric in support for Palestinians, and what it does.

Albert Llussà, partner and solicitor at Daly Lynch Crow & Morris Solicitors, says it’s an uphill battle for Palestinian people living in profoundly unsafe places in Gaza to get an Irish visa and reach safety, even if they have family here.

Since November 2023, Llussà has been trying to reunite a young woman from Gaza, Saja Samour, with her family in Ireland.

But the Department of Justice has rejected the application for a humanitarian visa, initially and on appeal.

They said that “she was no worse off than other civilians in Gaza”, Llussà said. The young woman and her family are devastated, he says.

“Despite the government and the Taoiseach and the ministers’ outspoken statements in support of Gaza, when it comes to making a decision for a particular human being, they refuse a visa,” said Llussà.

Zoë Lawlor, chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), says the Irish government feels compelled to voice support for Palestinians due to public opinion.

“Because they know they have to be seen to be doing something,” said Lawlor by phone.

But its expression of support and solidarity doesn’t amount to much in practice, she said.

“We know many Palestinians who were trying to get, you know, family members out of Gaza, and you know, that just has gone nowhere,” she said.

On the streets

Between 1 January and 23 August, 226 people have withdrawn their asylum claims.

Abumotawi, the man who wants to return to Palestine, says he didn’t think they would cancel his asylum claim if no one could help him return.

“You know I have chronic diseases,” he said.

Under Section 22 of the International Protection Act 2015, people need ministerial permission to make a fresh asylum claim. They should submit documents outlining why the Minister for Justice must allow them to do that.

Abumotawi, who is currently homeless, says he’d rather go back than open a new case. He’s had enough, and he’s tired, he said.

Fiona Hurley, CEO of migrant rights non-profit NASC, says it’s disheartening to see people seeking asylum so vulnerable and exposed to harm, threats and taunts on the streets of Dublin.

“It is crucial that Gardaí treat any targeting of asylum seekers – be it online or in-person – with urgency and care,” she said.

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána did not directly respond to a query asking what measures it’s taking to better protect homeless men seeking asylum.

But Labour TD Ivana Bacik, who’d written to the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris about the issue, says he’d responded by saying “they will ensure proactive patrols on a daily basis” near the Grand Canal.

Meanwhile, Abumotawi says he’s worried he’d run out of medication and money, dying on the streets.

“I am not an animal, I am not an animal,” he said, banging on the table.