The country of Ireland is one that contains people from all walks of life. Due to the turmoil many countries face, people from a multitude of nationalities are finding themselves calling Ireland home.
Sherín Al Sabbagh is from Gaza but has been living in Ireland for the past 15 years. Sherín arrived in Ireland in 2008 to pursue a master’s degree in chemist development studies. Since she’s been here, Sherín has made Ireland her home.
“I was so privileged and lucky to be able to come here and to study. It was really a changing point in my life,” Sherín says. “When I look back, when I first came to Ireland, I feel like I’m a completely different person to who I was when I came here to Ireland, in a good way.”
However, Sherín finds herself in a particular moment of desperation right now. She’s 2,500 miles away from her family, who are stuck in Gaza. Sherín’s mother, brother and sister-in-law along with their four children are in Palestine, experiencing firsthand the devastation, fear, and uncertainty that each day has brought to them since October 7. Since the war broke out, Sherín has been desperately trying to find a way to bring her family here to Ireland.
“This situation is…I have never seen something like this before,” says Sherín, trying to give an idea of what life is like for her family in Gaza at the moment.
“They have been evacuated several times. They went to the South of Gaza. They went to the East of Gaza. They left their homes, that’s really the main point. Regardless of where they went with the South or West or any other direction, they left their homes. My mother left her house in fear. She is afraid.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry recently reported that the death toll has surpassed 30,000 people. The UN has reported that more and more children are dying, their lives claimed by starvation. In such a critical moment, Sherín is doing all she can to protect her family, attempting to bring them to Ireland and away from the devastation of war.
“I’m trying to get them out as soon as possible because I don’t think that the situation can last. I mean it’s so important to do something and I’m begging the Irish Government to help me with that,” says Sherín. “I’ve spoken to many TDs. I spoke to the Department of Foreign Affairs. I’ve been trying to do this since December 2023 and it’s not getting any better.”
A sense of displacement is not unfamiliar to Sherín. “I haven’t been home since 2008. And I’ve always wanted to go home because it’s my home. The situation is really difficult in Gaza. So I decided to live here and work here.”
At a time when Ireland is experiencing incredibly high volumes of refugees and asylum seekers, a sense of home and belonging is a longing that does not discriminate. An estimated 140,000 immigrants have entered Ireland, seeking a better life.
Sherín’s desire to be reunited with her family burns bright, as she continues to campaign for their freedom and safety. “What I want is to provide safety and food. To those people, to my family, to my mother, my brother, his wife and his wonderful four kids. I have been living in this country for 15 years and my family never said ‘please help us, save us.’”
Sherín continues to describe the situation her family, along with millions of Palestinians, are bearing witness to in Gaza. “What they have been going through since October 7 is horrendous. Is beyond description. There is no word that can describe the fear of horror and starvation.”
Sherín told SIN her family do not want to migrate from Gaza but they want to live in peace. “They are in immediate danger from bombs and bullets, as well as disease and starvation. They are desperate to get to safety.”
Sherín left her home in Palestine, and now in Ireland she says she has lived a life in peace. With this ‘leaving’ there must also be a sense of grief – a longing for a place that is no longer there, and will never be again. But now she’s in a place where she says, “I really, truly feel home.” Sherín is fervently working to save her family, and bring them here to her new home.
Diana Lakelo Siwela is originally from Zimbabwe and came to Ireland in 2019 as an asylum seeker, seeking a better life for herself and her family.
The decision to flee Zimbabwe didn’t come easy to Diana, “it wasn’t easy, if you come to choose to leave home, leaving everything that you have known all your life, leaving your comfort zone, leaving your family, leaving your job.
“Leaving everything with just a bag that you have on you with the few items that you know there is no time to waste if you’re running. You have to go. You’re running for safety.”
As an asylum seeker, Diana and her family spent their first nine months in the direct provision system in Carrickmacross.
Speaking about their experience in direct provision, Diana described those centres as “isolated, they take you away from everyone, away from the community, away from the people like you’re on your own.”
Diana gave an account of their living conditions, she spoke of how her husband, her two teenage children, her toddler and herself were stuck sharing one room.
“Imagine staying in a room with two teenagers. The frustration that they have everything comes on you because they are depressed. Here they are. They were used to being comfortable at home. They could watch TV, they could play on the Xbox, they could play on the PlayStation, but here they are now. They don’t have all that. They have left everything that they have known, everything in their comfort zone. They are comfortable at home and now they find themselves in that one room.
“It’s not an easy thing. And for kids to understand, especially teenagers at that stage, to them, you have failed them. You took them from their comfort. They don’t understand why they are here. They don’t understand why they have to leave home because they are just your kids. But they don’t understand the problems like you as a parent were going through that made you run away with them so that they are to ensure that you and your family are safe.”
Diana feels as though the talents of asylum seekers in direct provision are being wasted by their inability to seek employment.
“There’s lots of talent and expertise that is wasted in the direct provision centres because we have doctors there, we’ve got lawyers, we’ve got health and safety officers, we’ve got all the expertise that you can think of that Ireland’s in need of, but because you are labelled as an asylum speaker, all those things are taken away from you. You cannot do anything.”
The widespread issues of direct provision are also reflected in the wait times of some asylum seekers for the granting of their residency application. With claims of wait times reaching as long as nine or ten years, there are glaring issues in the system that need to be tackled.
With the number of asylum seekers and refugees entering Ireland increasing, and accommodation available consistently being filled up, it is yet to be seen how the government will strike a balance in providing a home for all.