'Completely dehumanising' - Mum says she's 'locked out' of Limerick Ipas home

A MOTHER who has battled against plans to relocate her family from Limerick to Letterkenny claims she was locked out of her home this Monday while taking her children to school.

Fatimah Ayodele said the locks were changed at her home in Abbey Court, Mungret, where her family are the only remaining tenants in an International Protection Accommodation Service (Ipas) centre.

The mother had been told of the move to Donegal in October last, but remained at the accommodation in Limerick pointing to the fact she is working locally, and her three children, Ade, 12, Simon, 10 and Anjie, 8, are all at school in the area.

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At the time, Limerick Live was also told by the Department of Justice, which administers the Ipas scheme, that Abbey Grove in Mungret was not closing, but rather it had been decided that the use of the units there were more suitable for single people and couples than families.

According to associates of Ms Ayodele, she received a text message this Monday advising her that the locks had been changed on the house.

“Could you please arrange to come and collect your belongings,” reads a message shared with Limerick Live, which is purportedly from a local estate manager to Ms Ayodele. “Your new accommodation is still available to you and I will forward your transfer letter now.

“I understand this is not the outcome you had hoped for, however, we are following the direction of Ipas and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and have no discretion in this matter.”

Upon receiving the text, Ms Ayodele - who was too upset to speak - contacted the Limerick branch of the Community Action Tenants Union (Catu).

Four of its members, alongside a neighbour and Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan turned up to show their support at the estate this Monday.

Limerick’s Catu chairperson Sofia Savina said Ms Ayodele had been allowed back into the accommodation to take some medication, but she remains under supervision.

It’s expected once her children finish school, they and their mother will be shuttled the more than 330km to Letterkenny.

“She came home to being locked out of her house with management throwing her possessions into bags and boxes essentially,” said Ms Savina, who described the treatment of Ms Ayodele, an asylum seeker from Nigeria, as “completely dehumanising”.

“The system we have here for asylum seekers is absolutely wrong.The way people think they can uproot their entire lives repeatedly, just shift them around the country, not taking into account social and emotional bonds they have built. I can see Fatimah is incredibly distressed. She has to think of her children too. It’s what she gets for standing up to herself,” Limerick’s Catu chair added.

Estate management had threatened to change the locks on the home Ms Ayodele was occupying as far back as November.

Limerick Educate Together National School in Mungret had also lobbied the Government to change course.

Limerick Live has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.