Hostel accommodation has been offered to an Afghan asylum seeker who was homeless since his arrival in Ireland late last month.
Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman stressed to the High Court on Friday, through his counsel David Conlan Smyth SC, that the man was offered the accommodation on Thursday because he reached the top of a queue of single male asylum seekers.
The man, who cannot be identified due to a court order, brought an application earlier this week asking the court to grant a mandatory injunction forcing the Minister to provide him with housing.
All women, children and family applicants seeking international protection have been accommodated since the Citywest processing centre ceased taking new arrivals on January 19th. Single males are being housed on a chronological basis when places arise.
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Mr Conlan Smyth said the man’s High Court litigation “did not trigger the outcome” of accommodation provision, which would have occurred independently.
The Minister has a “well-thought-out queuing system” in place, and this applicant reached his position at the top of the queue, alongside “most, if not all,” single males who arrived in or around January 28th, he added.
“The Minister takes very seriously the issues raised in these proceedings [ ...] They are issues that impact not just this applicant but other single males arriving into the State seeking international protection,” he said.
Mr Conlan Smyth said that if the man had not been offered accommodation at this point, the State would be contending “very strongly” that the High Court is not the appropriate forum for deciding emergency accommodation issues.
It was the Minister’s “very firm” submission that the proper route for these issues is through him and the court “could not be engaging” in decisions relating to expenditure on emergency accommodation, counsel added.
He claimed the failure to provide him with reception conditions, including accommodation, in line with the Reception Conditions Regulations of 2018 and an EU directive was unlawful.
For the applicant, Colm O’Dwyer SC, instructed by the Irish Refugee Council Independent Law Centre, said on Friday that the mandatory injunction application is now moot.
As the aim of the man’s wider proceedings was to secure accommodation, and did not seek damages, these too have “effectively” become moot, Mr O’Dwyer added.
Mr Justice Charles Meenan said the issues raised in the case are “very important”, going beyond the applicant in this case. He said the court still has some jurisdiction for “at least looking at a number of issues that have arisen and how they have been effectively dealt with by the Minister”.
After hearing from Mr Conlan Smyth, the judge read from the affidavit of a principle officer with the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) which, the judge said, accepts the applicant has an entitlement to accommodation under the 2018 regulations and that the State has “unquestioned” duties in that regard.
Mr Justice Meenan added: “There is a system – to put it no higher than that – to deal with persons who find themselves in the unfortunate situation that the applicant has.”
He agreed the proceedings are “probably moot”, and adjourned a hearing for legal costs to a date in March.
The man claimed that when he applied for international protection on January 30th he was given a €25 voucher, which he spent on bedding. He said he used various homeless services to source food.
He claimed he was verbally and physically attacked, robbed and racially abused while sleeping rough.
A shopkeeper in Afghanistan, the man said he left his home country after getting into trouble with the Taliban. He claimed an incident near his shop led to some Taliban fighters being killed by police, and he was subsequently sent death threats from the Islamic fundamentalist group.
The man said he left the country in the summer of 2021, crossing various eastern European countries before travelling to France in a container. He said he spent three months in Calais before being transported to Ireland in another container.
