Residents of Athlone tented camp to move in from next week

As the summer starts to wind down, a tented camp is being set up in Athlone for 200 people who will start to move in next week.

The tented facility is being added on the grounds of the town's asylum seeker accommodation centre in Lissywollen.

The tents will be used by asylum seekers, officially known as international protection applicants, who have arrived in Ireland from countries other than Ukraine.

According to a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth, the residents of the Athlone facility "will most likely be adult males."

They are "expected to start moving in at the end of next week, once the setting up of the facility and supporting services is complete," the spokesperson said on Monday.

The Government had hinted in recent weeks that it was considering increasing the capacity of the centre at Lissywollen by adding tented facilities, but details of the plan had been scarce.

On Thursday last, following a query from the Westmeath Independent, the Department confirmed a tented facility would be set up in Lissywollen in response to "the large increase in the number of International Protection arrivals into Ireland" in recent months.

It said this "temporary structure" was being put in place in order to "meet the immediate and short-term accommodation needs" of people arriving into the country.

The facility being installed involves "four large tents, each subdivided into mini bedrooms, together with full toilet and washing facilities and the provision of meals."

Work to set up the structure began last weekend and "is continuing at pace," the Department spokesperson said on Monday.

This newspaper asked for access to the State-owned site in Lissywollen in order to take photos of the tented facility, but earlier this week the request was denied.

"Unfortunately, we're not in a position to facilitate your photography request," the Department told us.

"There is a myriad of related and ancillary infrastructure and services to be now set up (which required the tents up first) which will take over a week to complete with occupation planned from end of next week," the spokesperson stated.

It's not known how long the tented facility will be in use.

The Department declined to answer a question about the expected timeframe, saying only that it was "working with others to identify and source longer-term accommodation for international protection applicants."

It's believed that the Athlone facility is the third tented camp to be put in place in Ireland in recent months. One such facility was set up at the Gormanston military camp, in Meath, for people fleeing the war in Ukraine, whole another was put in place for asylum seekers at the Knockalisheen direct provision site near Limerick.

It's now 22 years since the centre in Lissywollen was established, with 100 mobile homes put in place to provide direct provision accommodation. The first residents moved into the site in the autumn of 2000.