Dublin’s ‘tent city’: Supporters of asylum seekers refuse to move as gardaí dismantle migrant camp

The camp of around 60 tents had been growing on Charlemont Place, close to the Charlemont Luas stop for around three weeks, after other camps that had been located at Merrion Square were being dismantled on a daily basis.

It was also close to the scene where two men drowned last weekend. They had been sleeping in tents on the opposite side of the canal and were not asylum seekers.

Separately, three men were arrested after an alleged attack on the camp on Monday night.

The camp at Charlemont Place was located on the grounds of a vacant office block, which is private property, and gardaí arrived at the scene at 7am this morning and erected barriers at both ends of the road.

Then at 7.30am they moved in to alert the asylum seekers that they were to leave the area.

The tents were huddled close together under large blue tarpaulin sheets with no sanitary facilities nearby.

As the men woke and were moved from the tents they could be seen washing their faces with bottled water and gathering their few belongings into plastic bags.

A group of supporters of the asylum seekers refused to leave from in front of the camp.

There were brief scuffles as the supporters were physically moved and carried by gardaí to beyond the street cordon, where they remained with the asylum seekers as they left the camp and wondered where to go next.

The supporters then stood with their arms linked together in front of the barrier for a time while the migrants were directed from the camp.

A group of workers then dismantled the tents after the men had left them, and they were placed on the back of a small truck and taken away.

The workers then collected up any waste and sleeping bags that were left behind and removed that also.

Then at around 8.30am another truck arrived carrying the now-familiar barriers that line the canal on both sides.

A team of men erected the barriers around the site and the operation was completed by around 9am.

The asylum seekers are then believed to have moved around the corner where a new camp was being established by some of them on some vacant land currently earmarked for development.