Ireland to sign EU migration pact, overhaul housing system

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland agreed on Wednesday to sign off on new EU rules designed to share the costs and work of hosting migrants and accommodating the arrivals after protests across the country. A new bid was also started to change the method.

Immigration has risen up the political agenda in Ireland after more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees – the largest number per capita in Western Europe – joined a record number of asylum seekers amid a worsening housing crisis.

The government said its decision to sign up to rules agreed by EU governments in December – where countries are assigned a share of arrivals with a new expedited border process for people deemed unlikely to win asylum – would speed up its processes. Will give.

Ministers also planned to deliver 14,000 state-owned beds by 2028 to accommodate asylum seekers in a move away from the current “complete reliance” on private providers, which has led to a persistent struggle for accommodation and some arrivals. Set up tents. On the road.

The system will still be supplemented, as needed, by commercial providers, but ministers have promised to end the use of unsuitable accommodation options currently relied upon, such as being the only hotel remaining in a given city.

Local people and anti-immigrant protesters have objected to the removal of such services from many small towns.

The government, which has been unable to stem a steady rise to record levels of homelessness, said it was trying to house asylum seekers through the use of modular units on state land, the purchase of properties, the construction of new reception centers and commercial negotiations. Will promote housing for. Buildings.

The plan replaces an undetermined 2021 strategy to place all applicants into state-run housing that was based on 3,500 new arrivals each year. More than 30,000 people have arrived in Ireland since January 2022 in search of international protection.

Prime Minister-in-waiting Simon Harris told reporters earlier on Wednesday that the plans were a step in the right direction toward the “firm but fair” system on migration that he advocated in a speech on Sunday.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, editing by Angus MacSwan)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters,