In This Together

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One room shared by seven asylum-seeking men in a direct provision centre opened in March in Ennis, Co Clare

This morning.

In The Irish Times.

Sorcha Pollak reports that asylum seekers living in direct provision who lost their jobs due to the pandemic have stopped receiving their Covid-19 unemployment payments.

Ms Pollak also reports that asylum seekers living outside direct provision who lost their jobs due to the pandemic continue to receive the payment.

She adds:

“Asked to clarify why the payment had stopped for those in the accommodation system, a spokeswoman for the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection said people in direct provision already had their “accommodation and other basic needs met by the State, and the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment is not available to them”.

“Some 1,208 people living in direct provision were working at the end of 2019, according to Department of Justice figures.”

Meanwhile…

Further to the Minister for Health Simon Harris confirming yesterday evening that there have been 164 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in direct provision centres, infectious disease specialist registrar in Cork University Hospital Dr Eamonn Faller told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier…

“I’m concerned about anyone living in tightly congregated settings. I suppose direct provision centres or any tightly congregated settings are an absolute catastrophe in a pandemic of a highly transmissible airborne virus.

“This virus loves having people that are in close contact, where it can spread. And we’re seeing in the settings within direct provision where people don’t have the facility to social distance, we’re seeing huge increases in the numbers of cases.

“In the last five days, we’ve seen 165% increase from the 62 figure quoted on Sunday to the 164 figure quoted by Simon Harris in the Dáil yesterday.

“That, like those numbers are in keeping with a pandemic that is unfettered, that’s the three-day doubling time that we had at the very beginning and it’s because there are these people in tightly congregated settings that have no capacity to social distance.

“And haven’t really been given the capacity to social distance.”

He added:

“When someone tests positive in a direct provision centre, they are moved out of that centre. But of course that does leave people they were tightly congregated with, that leaves their contacts, that leaves other people within the centre and just because the person who was symptomatic that was tested has been moved out of the centre, it does not mean that still aren’t people that are asymptomatic spreading the virus in this tightly congregated setting where you can’t socially distance.”

Asked if widespread testing should now take place in direct provision centres, Dr Faller said:

“Yes, it absolutely should. I think we have, so there’s nine clusters, 164 cases now. We don’t know the proportion of people who are infected with this virus who are asymptomatic and given that, given the difficulties with social distancing in these centres, I think testing of all the residents and appropriate isolation would, that would be appropriate.”

Later, he added:

“If testing and meaningfully lowering the density of these centres doesn’t happen soon, then we’re just going to see this doubling time every three days, this massive increase in cases and I mean this isn’t just, this isn’t an issue affects the people in direct provision centres.

“This affects the people in the towns and villages that these direct provision centres are in. As well as being a massive concern for the people in direct provision, it’s a huge wider public health risk. We can’t lift restrictions, if we have active community spread. And if you have any pockets of active community spread, that’s active community spread for everyone.

“In this pandemic what’s bad for any one person, is bad for everybody. This isn’t a disparate group. The virus does not discriminate between groups. So if you have pockets of active infection then that is going to spread within the community.”

Listen back in full here

Related: Problems mount at Caherciveen Direct Provision centre (Michael Clifford, The Irish Examiner)

Yesterday: 164

Previously: “I’ve Seen Some Misleading Information On Social Media” (April 1, 2020)

“Please Start Moving People Now” (March 24, 2020)

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4 thoughts on “In This Together

  1. Cian

    If you have a DP centre (or other shared-accommodation like a hotel) where nobody has COVID then nobody will get it.
    If you have a DP centre where someone has it – it will spread quickly.

    I’m not sure if sending teams of people from one DP centre to another and interacting with everyone is a good idea. It could spread the virus from one centre to another.

    OTOH once one person in a DP centre shows symptoms – move them out and test everyone in the centre.

    Testing seems to be fast. My Da was tested on Monday – got the results on Tuesday.

  2. Jake38

    This is what happens when you have a dishonest policy.

    Genuine asylum seekers should be welcomed.

    Those claiming asylum on spurious ground should be deported.

    Direct provision is a nonsense born of political cowardice and a legal system of endless appeals which (no surprise) serves only to enrich the legal profession at taxpayers expense

Comments are closed.

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