Officers said the removal operation had been “peaceful” (Image: Express)
A migrant ‘tent city’ in the heart of Dublin has been bulldozed as the authorities erected a ring of steel around key sites in the Irish capital.
Tents – previously home to hundreds of asylum seekers – were marked with a giant red “X” before a crane lifted, and crushed them, into waiting lorries.
And buses and taxis lined up to take the migrants to larger accommodation sites – including a hotel and “robust, weatherproof tents” – after the dawn raid.
The camp – which formed around Ireland’s International Protect Office – had become a symbol of Dublin’s failure to tackle the asylum crisis.
The number of asylum seekers in the Irish capital has swelled as many flee from the UK amid fears they will be deported to Rwanda.
Irish Premier Simon Harris claimed the raid was a “humanitarian operation”, saying the situation on Mount Street had become “completely unacceptable”.
“The international protection applicants have been taken to safe shelter with appropriate sanitary facilities, hot food, a clean place to eat, access to medical help and a bus link to Dublin City Centre,” he said.
But Tánaiste Micheál Martin again took a swipe at the UK, declaring: “I’ve been listening to Rwanda now for three years. We’re now talking about one person going there [yesterday],” he said.
“Brexit was meant to control migration in the UK. It didn’t control migration in the UK, numbers have gone up exponentially.
“As far as we’re concerned, we have to have firm procedures in Ireland.”
The asylum seekers were directed to buses and taxi’s by police (Image: Express)
The Daily Express was able to witness the giant clear-up operation from inside a police cordon set up to restrict access.
Asylum seekers – carrying their few remaining possessions in Dublin City Council bin bags – huddled in groups waiting to be directed onto waiting buses or taxis.
They told this newspaper they were being taken to the “mountain”, which referred to a former nursing home in the hills near Crooksling, to the south west of Dublin.
Officers said the operation had been “peaceful” after they gathered at around 6:30am.
As the size of the camp dwindled, street cleaners began hosing down the pavement. Meanwhile, construction workers erected steel fences next to the buildings, with tents and tarpaulin destroyed and dumped.
It is a clear sign of Dublin’s growing determination to end such a visible representation of its growing asylum crisis, as witnesses said officials did not put up such fences in a previous operation in March.
Among the tents which had “leave” scribbled on it, while they were all marked with an X when they were empty.
Ministers have warned they will remove any migrants who try and camp at the site again.
Just 24 hours previously, tents were covered by giant tarpaulin, with small stoves set up in some sections. But rubbish, including abandoned shoes and discarded towels, food and drinks, was all that remained by 11am on Wednesday.
The sharp smell of bleach hung through the air near a bridge that the migrants treated as a toilet.
The camp, dubbed Dublin’s migrant tent city, has grown rapidly in recent weeks, according to inhabitants, mainly fuelled by people arriving from the UK.
Among those living near Ireland’s International Protection Office, was a Sudanese asylum seeker, Abdul, who fled a migrant hotel in London in 2022 after being told he would be on one of the original flights to Rwanda – before the policy was grounded for two years by legal challenges.
Mr Mhammed, 20, said: “The UK says ‘go to Rwanda’. The UK is safe, but now it says to go Rwanda and it is not safe. If the UK was not saying anything, I would not come here.
“I crossed because they want to send me to Rwanda. I don’t want to go.
“I crossed in a small boat.
“It is not safe. I was sent a letter in my hotel. I was in a hotel in London. I received the letter in 2022. I left the hotel, went to stay with my friend, then after that, I came here.
“I took a bus from London to Liverpool, then went from Liverpool to Belfast by boat. I then took a bus. I did it by myself.
“Every country in Africa is not safe. Before, did you know the story of Rwanda? It was very bad.
“I arrived in the UK in 2022. I stayed for two years. I arrived in Dublin 20 days ago. I went from London, to Belfast, to Dublin in one day.
“I am more confident about my position here than I am in the UK. Here, they don’t say anything.”
Migrants are also choosing other countries, other than Ireland, to avoid the threat of deportation to Rwanda, it is understood.
