Conditions outside a building where applications for international protection are processed are a 'humanitarian emergency', a volunteer group has said.

Social Rights Ireland said approximately 270 asylum sleepers are sleeping rough at the International Protection Office (IPO) in Dublin city.

A number of asylum seekers were moved back onto the streets after receiving temporary accommodation during heavy snowfall earlier this month.

Over 1,000 asylum seekers are without accommodation in the State, with growing numbers camping outside the IPO on Mount Street in the capital.

Tents outside the International Protect Office in Dublin, 4-3-24. Image: Eamonn Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

Róisín McAleer from Social Rights Ireland said conditions there are a big concern.

"There is no toilet at the IPO camp for asylum seekers, there is no running water," she said.

"We are supplying tents, sleeping bags, clothes and food in a desperate attempt to stave off death outside the IPO.

"People are sick. There is an outbreak of scabies and respiratory illnesses at the camp".

'Appalling conditions'

Ms McAleer said the group put out a call and a volunteer doctor came to assess those who required attention.

"She has been brilliant, but she is also shocked by the appalling conditions in which people are living, in dirty streets, abandoned and freezing," she said.

"The silence from [Integration] Minister Roderic O’Gorman has been most concerning.

"This is a humanitarian crisis, the like of which we have never witnessed in Ireland.

"People at the camp are losing weight, deteriorating rapidly and shivering in the cold. We are seeing it with our own eyes, every day."

Tents outside the International Protection Office in Dublin city, 12-3-24. Image: Social Rights Ireland

Ms McAleer said there is also an issue with a "huge heap of waste containing human faeces in a dump".

"No authority will clean [it] up, despite our daily efforts to contact IPO, Dublin City Council and a private waste company," she added.

The group sent a letter to Minister O'Gorman last week expressing its concerns.

Main image: Tents and waste outside the International Protection Office in Dublin city, 12-3-24. Image: Social Rights Ireland