Dr. Salome Mbugua:

The centres have mushroomed. We did not have so many of them, let us say, five years ago. Now there are many and there is no tracking of even control. When you are privatising, whom are you privatising? To whom are you giving that responsibility to take care of vulnerable groups? These are vulnerable groups. Like the Deputy said, there are children involved. Tusla may not even know because the way they are set up, the centre could be anywhere in the country.

In 2010, for example, AkiDwa did research, namely, Am Only Saying it Now: Experiences of Women Seeking Asylum in Ireland. We followed up with another report, namely, No Place to Call Home: Safety and Security Issues of Women Seeking Asylum in Ireland, on women living in those accommodation centres. There were issues of sexual exploitation, sexual harassment and many things happening. Most of them are private centres. There is a huge issue there. We attack the housing issue with privatisation with people who are ready to take. It is to fill the gap. It is hard to know who these people who are entrusted to take care of vulnerable people even come from. We heard from our services how security is not vetted yet this is security in women-only places. We have heard a lot of issues. There are many issues out there.

It is important to be on top of everything to ensure that the safety and security, especially of those vulnerable children and women, is protected and taken into account. Vetting is one of the key measures that can be taken to know who is in these centres providing the services and how they are providing them.

Also, when issues come up, what is the reporting mechanism? Quite often, when people report, they are transferred. They are moved from one centre to another. There are many issues happening because people are stressed and have mental health issues. However, the managers and staff are not able to deal with them. We talk about training, but those are the people who need the training on cultural competency, vulnerable people and all those kind of things the most. However, now anybody can be a centre manager or staff manager of vulnerable people.