Council seeks ten housing units for Syrian refugees
Westmeath County Council is in the process of securing social housing for ten Syrian families due to arrive in Athlone from the war-stricken country sometime in 2018.
The local authority has previously indicated that up to 50 refugees will arrive in Athlone in first half of the new year, however, no further timeline is available as of yet following a recent query by the Westmeath Independent.
The council simply said they continue to "liaise closely with the Department of Justice in this regard".
"Westmeath County Council is engaged in an ongoing process of securing social housing in various locations in Athlone," the statement also indicated.
The Athlone contingent forms phase two of the resettlement programme in Westmeath, with another 10 families already housed in Mullingar.
It’s understood another three families are due to relocate to the county town in the early New Year.
All of the Mullingar families have been allocated social housing in various locations, the council also confirmed.
Westmeath County Council initially indicated that the Athlone bound refugees, made up of ten to 12 different families, coming from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) camps in Lebanon, would be resettled in the town by this December, however, that was later pushed out to the first half of 2018.
In terms of services for the refugees arriving in Athlone, the local authority confirmed that similar to what occurred in Mullingar, there are a multitude of agencies working together, via a steering committee, on their behalf to ensure that their resettlement from war-torn Syria is as smooth as possible.
“Families arriving in Athlone will be accorded the same services as those settled in Mullingar have received... A resettlement worker will also be appointed to support families placed in Athlone," a council statement this week stressed.
The families are part of approximately 4,000 people which the government has committed to receiving through the Irish Refugee Protection Programme.