Negativity over new Mayo international protection centre is unwarranted
A protest was staged on the streets of Castlebar a number of years ago to highlight the poor conditions that existed in a direct provision centre in Ballyhaunis.
Residents held up banners citing the challenging nature of their living conditions and how it was impinging on their daily lives.
Some improvements have taken place over the years but the matter has never been taken as seriously as it should be by those in positions of power.
In contrast, a considerable investment has been made in equipping the former sports arena in Breaffy with separate accommodation units for 200 asylum seekers at the two-storey property.
Despite being acknowledged as one of the finest equipped international protection centres in the country, there has been a level of negative reaction to the facility that is totally unwarranted and without foundation.
The people of the Castlebar municipal district have embraced the arrival of 769 Ukrainian refugees to the area - the 11th highest for an electoral area in the country - and rightly so.
It is only fitting the same degree of warmth and goodwill is extended to the asylum seekers - many of whom are women and children - because they, too, were forced to flee very difficult situations in their own lives in their own countries.
Indeed, the 300 Ukrainians residing in a former hotel beside them at the Breaffy site have already done so.
While the owners of the Breaffy arena will be paid a generous fee for hosting over 300 refugees and 200 asylum seekers, it is good that such a fine building was available for this purpose at this time.
This observer visited the complex a number of days ago and found people with smiles on their faces, happy to be in a safe environment and hopeful of being able to return to their home countries in the future.
It is not, of course, an ideal situation for them. How could it be? The torment of having been forced out of your own country to live in a foreign place is beyond comprehension.
In that context, they deserve all the support they can get.
It is important, too, that all of our elected representatives make a point of visiting them, view their facilities, and make them feel welcome.
By doing so, and speaking constructively about it afterwards at one of their public meetings, they would help in eradicating the negativity that exists in some quarters.
It is a statement of fact, too, that the government’s International Protection Accommodation Services, better known as IPAS, needs to be more pro-active in terms of communicating its message and not allowing the creation of a vacuum to be filled with untruths.