IWW Ireland stands in solidarity with the residents of the Skellig Star Direct Provision centre. In protest of the dehumanising conditions of the Skellig Star Direct Provision accommodation centre all residents have begun a hunger strike and laid out three simple demands to end the appalling conditions they live under
1 - Access to a social worker to have their mental health catered for and monitored.
2 - Transfer of all residents to an appropriate accommodation centre where they can have proper vulnerability assessments and get adequate treatments for trauma.
3 - Preferred accommodation centres with adequate facilities are:
a) Mosney Accommodation Centre, and
b) Tullamore Accommodation Centre.
Due to the conditions at the Skellig Star centre thirty asylum seekers have left the centre choosing to live homeless and on the streets rather than in circumstances worse than those found in State prisons.
These eighty people have fled their homes with nothing and come to Ireland in the hope of finding a liveable existence free of the violence and oppression they faced in the countries they came from. None of these people came looking for an easy life or for hangouts, they came simply because they had to be somewhere where their children and themselves could be safe, have a chance to make something of themselves and contribute to the society they live in. Instead they find an open prison system where the options are to put up with being treated like second class humans or a life on the streets while they wait for an inadequate and unfit for purpose system of asylum assessment.
As residents in our country with access to or options for redress all that is left to them to alleviate the circumstances they now find themselves in is the drastic action of hunger strikes. The IWW in Ireland stands in solidarity with the residents on hunger strike and all asylum seekers resident in Ireland. Permanent accommodation is essential for work permits. They have the right to a home and work as basic rights. As a grass-roots union the IWW demands the issue of work permits so asylum seekers can start a life of their own.
The Direct Provision system is little more than an open prison system which over the years has grown into a for profit institution benefiting only a select few companies. Profits made from the misery of humans ignored by the State, left with no other options and no voice. We call for the end of the Direct Provision system and equal, humane treatment of asylum seekers resident in Ireland. We can do better, Ireland. Are we or are we not the land of a hundred thousand welcomes?