The government is anticipating close to 40,000 Ukrainian refugees to have arrived in Ireland by the end of this month, Minister for Sport Jack Chambers has said.
pproximately 23,000 refugees fleeing the war-torn country have already arrived in Ireland and it’s anticipated that figure will have risen to 40,000 by the end of April. More than 4.7m Ukrainians have fled their homeland since the start of the war in late February.
More than 80pc of Ukrainians coming into Ireland are in need of accommodation and Minister for Sport Jack Chambers has written to sporting organisations across the country to see what facilities they can offer to help house incoming refugees in community centres and halls.
Mr Chambers said areas such as the Sports Ireland campus are being considered and they are liaising with Fingal County Council to see what they can provide for refugees. This comes as government struggle to house the incoming 500-600 refugees arriving in Ireland daily.
It’s anticipated refugees will be housed in dorm-style short-term accommodation until more long-term solutions can be found.
The Irish Red Cross have received over 23,000 accommodation pledges and it’s anticipated all of these will have been contacted by the end of next week in relation to suitability and space.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said Ireland is facing its biggest ever refugee crisis and that it “will be like something from a movie, but it’s for real”.
“It’s not like in the past where we would have accepted a few hundred people from Bosnia, Afghanistan or Vietnam, this is very different. It’s on a different scale and a new experience for us in Ireland.
“600 people coming in a day – it’s going to be very hard to manage. We will do the best we can, whether it’s BnB’s and hotels, space in people’s homes or holiday homes, but it is the case we’re going to have to use facilities like Millstreet, CityWest, Gormanstown. On occasions, places like sporting and community centres.
“This is a real refugee crisis. The kind of thing you would have seen in the movies except it’s not a movie, it’s for real,”” Mr Varadkar said on Newstalk Radio this morning.
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