The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers

Olivia and a group of volunteers help homeless asylum seekers in Dublin find a safe place to sleep, despite strong opposition from the government and the rise of far-right hatred on the streets. They spend mornings and evenings warning the men when the police are coming and helping when they need to rapidly take down their tents.

In early 2024, for the second time the Irish government stopped providing housing to single male asylum seekers. Many were left on the streets, and they began pitching their tents along the canal. The government then fenced off the entire canal—a move that cost the state hundreds of thousands of euros.

Filmed in a direct style, this urgent piece of documentary journalism is a sequel to the award-winning documentary The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp (2024), which shows how a camp built by homeless asylum seekers in Dublin was set on fire by a far-right mob in 2023. In their sequel, the filmmakers focus not on the asylum seekers themselves, but on the volunteers who are campaigning against Ireland’s increasingly inhumane asylum policy.