Car Tourismo Banner
Home » Breaking News » ‘People are terrified of putting their heads up over the parapet’
Clare County Council and An Garda Síochána have come together to urge the people of Clare to keep up efforts and reduce the spread of Covid-19

‘People are terrified of putting their heads up over the parapet’

Car Tourismo Banner

2020 has been a hectic year for the Clare Immigrant Support Centre, and a very uncertain one for the people it supports.

Spokesperson Orla Ní Éilí said that things were particularly busy as the first lockdown struck. “We’re very busy. Obviously when it hit we were doing everything by WhatsApp and email and all of that, back in the spring and we were ridiculously busy, it was 24/7, literally. Then we tried to pull it back into a bit of shape, to do our clinic times, we always had clinics in Miltown Malbay and Lisdoonvarna. When things settled we were doing appointments only on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but we were working the rest of the week as well. Now we’re back off appointments and we’re doing everything online at the moment.”

She said that some of the undocumented immigrants in the county are particularly struggling, with the segments of the economy they work in having disappeared, while they may not have a social security safety net. “Some of them would be in a tricky situation, because they may have been like many Irish abroad, working off the books and that would be gone now as an avenue.”

Ms Ní Éilí said some of these people are in “horrible positions”, and even when there were State supports for the undocumented, people were often too fearful to accept them. “In March when all of this kicked off there was access to a Covid payment for the undocumented, but it was very hard for people to believe they could go and engage with one part of the State, without it being transferred to another part of the State. The Immigrant Council of Ireland got assurances from the Department of Justice and the Department of Social Protection that that wouldn’t happen, but people would still have been too fearful. People are terrified putting their heads up over the parapet.”

Others who are here legally can have other issues. “Over the months, understandably, a lot of people’s cards haven’t been renewed as services tried to catch up. This has made people feel vulnerable as well, they might be taking up new jobs without having the correct stamp to show to employers. It is okay, but employers could be very concerned. These have been turbulent times for people.”

Some of those who are here were due to be reunited with families, but that has also been delayed. “Other issues we have seen are people who have family who were allowed to join them under family reunification, which is a deep process done under UNHCR and in co-operation with our Government. People would get visas, be coming from other countries having gone through a big process, but it was all stalled and it was a mess. In every sphere of everyone’s life I think we’re seeing an impact from Covid. Like other organisations I think we’re particularly concerned now as we head into the winter and there’s a need for fuel and all of that so people are warm. The foodbanks are up and running, not by us, but we direct people towards them. It’s hard not to be concerned about people at this time.”

In general, the stresses that are caused by upheaval of coming to Ireland has been exacerbated by the Covid upheaval. “We’ve had a few terribly sad stories in the last week and there are layers upon layers of worry. What we will always be trying to do is give people the correct information to try and resolve whatever circumstances are happening at the moment.”

There have been cases where people have had to leave Direct Provision Centres, causing a lot of upheaval. “A lot of asylum seekers from various hostels quite rightly had to go to other places so there would be less people on site. Therefore their lives were suddenly taken out of Clare to places like Galway and Cork. People were caught outside the direct provision centres because they were working in Dublin but were used to coming back at weekends, but that wasn’t allowed.”

Working in the Clare Immigrant Support Centre hasn’t been very easy of late, but things keep going. “We’re okay, we’ve gone through the mill and been exhausted and upset for people, but we just try to give as much support, help and direction as we can, while trying to make sure we have funding to keep going. We very rarely have long term funding to be able to plan, but we’re managing.”

Owen Ryan

Owen Ryan

Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.

About Owen Ryan

Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.