The only hotel in the village of Carna on the west coast of Ireland, the Carna Bay Hotel, used to attract hundreds of tourists every summer for weddings, christenings, and other programs. But after the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out, the owner signed a contract with the state in 2022 to temporarily accept Ukrainian refugees, writes Mandiner.
Now a plan calls to permanently use the building to house 84 asylum seekers from all over the world in the center’s 28 rooms. There are not even 180 full-time residents in the town. The U.K.’s Daily Mail reported on this, also citing MMA fighter Conor McGregor for saying the country “potentially losing its Irishness,” with illegal migration “ravaging the country.”
The paper notes that this is an issue for towns across Ireland, with the government spending close 1.5 billion pound on housing asylum seekers in the first none months of 2024.
One International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) center even opened in a 300-year-old hotel in Tipperary County.
Carna residents are protesting and feel the government is ignoring their concerns. “Our community is filled with anger. This is the third year and they still call this temporary?” Maedhbh Ní Ghaora told Daily Mail.
“Tourists don’t stop here anymore. There’s no point. The hotel was the center, without it the village is so-so,” said local pub owner Peter Fitzpatrick
Karl Rogers, the hotel’s former owner – who is getting a lot of flak from locals for signing the first contract to temporarily house Ukrainian refugees after Covid crippled his business – is also disappointed. He said that if he had known this would be the fate of his beloved hotel, he would never have sold it. The catch may be that the current owner is a company based in Cork city – Ireland’s third largest city, and is presumably not working for the well-being of the residents of the rural villages. Instead, for business reasons, there will be 80 permanent “guests” instead of a sporadically operating hotel, regardless of what the locals want.
This company submitted the application for the possibility of accepting refugees; the government only suspended its consideration for three months because the locals submitted an alternative proposal.
64-year-old John Foalan told the paper: “’When the Ukrainians came we welcomed them, but we see what’s happening in other areas, people turning up with no papers, no documents, no nothing, just expecting to walk in.” He also warned of what happened in Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, where 15 votes were cast in favor of the government plan for a reception center and 197 against it, but the center was opened nonetheless.
Now, a local development cooperative is trying to buy back the building for a community-run hotel using fundraising and tender resources.