Ireland expected to receive 20 refugees by Christmas
It is expected Ireland will receive around 20 refugees from Syria before the end of this year.
It is part of the Government’s relocation programme, which was announced last month, which will see up to 4,000 asylum seekers due to arrive here.
Yesterday, a Government taskforce met to discuss the needs of those who are due to arrive here from war torn countries.
The Minister for State with responsibility for new communities, Aodhan O'Riordan, has said local authorities will work with the Red Cross to map out the selected locations.
“We are looking at about 20 between now and December which is a small number but our commitment is to take about 2,622 over the next two years and the reason there is a delay is not Ireland’s fault,” Mr O’Riordan said.
“It is because the vast amount of people who are in Italy and Greece, in the refugee camps where we are going to take people from are not applying for asylum because the traffickers are telling them not to do so because they may end up staying in Italy and Greece so we have to overcome that.”
