‘Everyone is upset, stressed and shocked’: Ukrainian families in South Dublin face relocation on Monday
Olha Sheremet’s husband Viktor has stomach cancer, meaning she must cook special food for him, she explains through a translation app while standing at the foot of a staircase in a building in Blackrock, Co Dublin.
With tears streaming down her face, she moves her hand over her heart as she shows photographs of her son holding a gun while wearing a military uniform on the front line in Ukraine.
She speaks to him once a month, she says.
“We cannot live and cook in a hotel. Everything is nearby here, both the hospital and medical centre where my husband is being monitored. We are elderly people and it is very difficult for us to move,” the translation reads.
She is one of 29 Ukrainians in a property in the South Dublin suburb of Blackrock who have been told that three buses will arrive on Monday morning to move them to new accommodation.
Under plans drawn up by the Department of Integration, the group which has been living at the property since December 2022, is to be split up and moved to three separate hotels near Citywest, Liffey Valley and Temple Bar.
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The group varies in age with eight children attending schools in the area, five of whom are in primary schools, one in secondary and two at preschool.
Living there for almost two years, they have become a “big family”, they say.
Half of them are working nearby, in areas such as construction, caring, pharmacy and cleaning while others are in further education or learning English to use their qualifications in Dublin.
“Everyone hopes and prays that something will be organised this week so we can stay long-term. It’s very important because we worked so hard to build our lives in this area,” says Diana Tkachuk, a 31-year-old from Sverdlovsk, who lives there with her six-year-old daughter Alisa.
Sitting beside her, Natalia Mishchenko shows videos she took in March 2022, of the regional intensive care hospital of Mariupol, where she worked as a nurse, reduced to rubble.
The 44-year-old is working in a local petrol station while studying to work as a nurse in the Republic.
Her young daughter, Varvara, attends the same school as Alisa and plays camogie locally, she says.
“All our lives are organised in this area,” says Ms Tkachuk, who works locally as a florist.
“It’s very sad because we have to move out and live separately. I think for some people, it will be harder without support like English, it will be hard,” she says.
She does not worry for herself, she adds, but for her daughter who will have to start over again, something that was challenging when they first arrived.
“Everyone is upset, stressed and shocked,” she says.
Ramziia Zidliaieva, a 66-year-old economist from Crimea, who lives at the property with her son Aider said she will not be boarding the bus on Monday morning, even if it means they will officially have nowhere to stay.
“I want to stay here because I like this house and I like the very nice people. It’s very good, they’re beautiful people and they’re fighting for us. I’m very happy I have these people and this family and I thank god,” she says.
The employer of Ms Zidliaieva’s son in Dún Laoghaire wrote to the department urging to reconsider the move which they described as “shocking”.
Blackrock Community Alliance, a group of locals advocating for the Ukrainians, also urged the department not to proceed with the move.
One letter from Carysfort National School said it has worked “tirelessly” to establish a sense of security for the families.
It says children living at the property had “fully settled” within the local community, adding that the “proposed disruption would impact severely on these children’s emotional state”.
The residents were initially informed on September 2nd, as the children were returning to school.
The department explained it is consolidating its accommodation portfolio due to a reduction in the number of Ukrainians fleeing the war and seeking accommodation.
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A subsequent letter informed them of the buses due to arrive on Monday morning, adding that if they refuse the accommodation, they would not receive further offers, nor could they access the Citywest Transit Hub.
“These actions are necessary to ensure the provision of accommodation for all who need it,” the letter reads.
The residents wrote to the department asking it to reconsider or at least postpone the move until alternative arrangements could be made, either through private rented accommodation or host families, though no such pledges have yet been made.
The majority are refusing to board the buses, hoping an agreement can be reached in the coming days.
The owner of the property, who wished for their name and the precise location of the accommodation to remain anonymous, said the department declined a request for an extension to allow a planned transition to private accommodation in the area or at the current property.
Applications for rent supplements in the hope of staying on as private tenants have also been declined by the Department of Social Protection as it deemed the property unsuitable for their needs.
A spokesman for the Department of Integration said contracts are being ended regularly and that every effort is being made to keep those being moved, as local as possible.
“The department appreciates that this is not easy for people and that moving location can be very disruptive, but at all times the department was clear that State-funded accommodation is temporary and subject to change,” he said.
