The Cahirciveen group requests to host refugees in the community

A group in the city of Co Kerry, where a controversial direct provision center was closed last summer, applied to host refugee resettlement.

Fáilte Cahirciveen was created to host refugees in the southern city of Kerry under the Government’s Community Sponsorship Program.

The move comes as the owner of the Skellig Star hotel in the city has made it known that he hopes to reopen it as a new form of direct provision center in the future.

In August, the hotel was closed as a direct supply center, following a major controversy over the Covid-19 outbreaks at the hotel. Groups of asylum seekers and the local population organized a campaign to close the hotel. The last of the asylum seekers residing at the hotel was transferred in September.

This week, the hotel’s owner, Paul Collins, told RTÉ Radio that he hoped to use the hotel to host a “own door” center for asylum seekers, which is the form of accommodation recommended in a recent expert report.

He told the Time to drive program that the premises would not be economically viable as a hotel. The Skellig Star complex includes 36 apartments that would qualify as “own door” accommodation and Mr. Collins operates three other direct supply centers across the country. When contacted,

Collins said he did not wish to comment at this time, but would podcast him in the new year. Irish Examiner of the Skellig Star.

The Fáilte Cahirciveen group was created several weeks ago and is applying for resettlement of refugee families under the community sponsorship program.

The program places families in refugee camps, primarily in Lebanon, in cities across the state, providing them with their own accommodation and a variety of support services.

Applicants must raise € 10,000 and provide details of the housing that is available and the services. The program has already relocated nine families to cities and the Cork-based NASC service, which installs the program, is currently working with six other groups.

Lisa O’Shea from the Fáilte Cahirciveen group said they wanted to show that there was an alternative to direct provision.

“This community program is the way to go,” he said.

You can help families in need and you are also helping rural areas in Ireland who need families and need diversity. “

He said that local people did not accept Collins’ claim that a hotel in the city would not be viable.

“The Skellig Star made money when it operated as a hotel and this city has no places for tourists. That will become an even bigger problem when the South Kerry Greenway, which was announced last month, is operational. So we would all welcome Skellig Star back to the way it was. ”