Dún Laoghaire assistance hub for Ukrainians to close as lease runs out

A support centre in Dún Laoghaire for Ukrainian refugees is set to close next month unless an alternative venue can be found.

The hub in the Dún Laoghaire Shopping Centre opened on April 21st and serves approximately 400 refugees ever day. It provides refugees with clothes and toys. The organisers also buy shoes, toiletries and other essentials for refugees who often arrive in Ireland with very little.

Organiser Oxena Crossen, who set up the hub in south Dublin with two other women, said their three-month lease runs out on July 2nd and they cannot afford to pay a commercial rate for the premises.

Ms Crossen said they are appealing to either the local council or a local business to provide them with a premises free of charge.

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The organisers have done a GoFundMe and raised €7,500 but the money has been used to buy essentials for refugees which cannot be donated such as shoes and underwear.

Ms Crossen said the plight of Ukrainian refugees has dropped off the radar for many Irish people after the initial shock of invasion when the public donated generously to help Ukraine.

Nevertheless, she stressed, the needs of refugees remain as acute as ever.

[ New Ukrainian hub to help refugees is inundated with offers of support ]

To date, 33,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland, having fled the war since the Russian invasion in February.

She anticipated that the hub, if a premises was provided, would change from a place where people could get essentials to a place where Ukrainians could be given an opportunity to integrate into Irish society.

“They need to be integrated into Irish society. We need to give them solutions. They don’t know anything about Irish life,” she said.

“These people have asked us for help. They are not going to local councils because they don’t speak the language and don’t understand the culture. They are coming to us because we understand them.

“If integration is not done, Ireland will end up with problems and resentment towards Ukrainians.”

She also said that many Ukrainian refugees should consider returning to places that have been liberated from Russian forces.

Those who have come from places in Ukraine which have not been affected by the war should also consider returning so as to relieve the pressure on those who cannot return, she suggested.

According to a recent survey, the homes of one in six Ukrainian refugees currently in Ireland have been destroyed by Russian forces.

A survey of the 33,000-strong community already in Ireland also reveals that there is active fighting in places where 44 per cent of those refugees live.

The survey, carried out by volunteers in the Ukrainian Community in Ireland, involved 2,200 people now living in Ireland.

Of those, 74 per cent of adult refugees are now looking for a job in Ireland and 24 per cent have already found one.

However, only one in five of those employed are working to the level of their professional qualification in Ukraine.