Irish Red Cross inundated with offers to shelter Ukrainian refugees

By Lydia O’Kane

Almost 20,000 people have offered housing to Ukrainian refugees in Ireland.

The Irish Red Cross (IRC) is accepting pledges of both shared and unoccupied accommodation.

Pledging accommodation

The offers of shelter submitted to the Irish Red Cross are in both cities and rural areas of the country.

The Irish Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, and the Irish Red Cross (IRC) last week launched a pledge register which will allow people to register accommodation and other services to assist Ukrainian refugees.

At the request of the Irish Government, the IRC has established and is managing the Register of Pledges.

Welcoming the announcement, Minister O’Gorman said:

“Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Irish people have been eager to assist the humanitarian efforts in any way they can. They have been particularly generous in donating funds and supplies and have expressed a desire to offer accommodation to refugees fleeing the conflict.

“Funded by my department, the Irish Red Cross is working with the Irish Government to organise accommodation for Ukrainian refugees expected to arrive in Ireland over the coming days and weeks.”

Supporting refugees

Speaking to Vatican Radio, the Secretary-General of the Irish Red Cross, Liam O’Dwyer, explained that refugees are coming into Irish ports and are being looked after by Red Cross volunteers and local government. They are then moved into emergency accommodation and reception centres.

“From there we make contact with them in relation to the possibility of moving them into pledged accommodation; so far nearly 20,000 Irish people have pledged accommodation to the refugees,” he said.

With so many people displaced from Ukraine, the camps on the borders are getting larger.

It is being elevated somewhat, noted the secretary-general, “by the fact that Ukrainians are moving throughout Europe and moving to other countries, to either stay with relations or to come as refugees.”

He went on to say that a new EU directive around protection is working extremely well from that point of view.

The Temporary Protection Directive gets around the usually overburdened asylum procedure and offers a quicker path to access protection across the EU.

“People can move easily into an EU country and can become part of the country and part of the system in terms of social welfare, in terms of work and education immediately,” said the IRC chief.

More refugees expected

As more and more Ukrainians continue to flee their country in search of safety, Mr. O’Dwyer noted that Ireland will be seeing growing numbers of refugees.

Psychological trauma

Many of those arriving in other parts of Europe, including children, have witnessed their towns and cities destroyed by Russian bombardments, and have arrived at borders traumatized by what they have endured.

Asked what psychosocial services refugees can avail of when they arrive in Ireland, the secretary-general said the Red Cross has its own team of psycho-social counselors who can be made available to provide support. There is also support from the State.

However, he noted that “given the amount of trauma that people may have experienced, that could put our own systems under stress; there’s no doubt about that given the volume of people involved.”

Generosity and solidarity

Through generous donations from people in Ireland, the Irish Red Cross has been able to send 20 million euros to aid the suffering population in Ukraine which  Mr. O’Dwyer described as “an amazing response.”