First group of evacuated Afghan refugees to arrive in Ireland this evening

The first cohort of Afghan refugees to be accepted into the State following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan will arrive into Dublin Airport this evening, The Irish Times has learned.

“Fewer than 10” Afghan refugees are due to arrive into Dublin on Monday evening on board a commercial flight, with “more arriving in the coming days”, a Government spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman did not respond to a question on whether the new arrivals would be brought to one of the State’s Emergency Reception and Orientation Centres (EROCs), which are used primarily to accommodate Syrian arrivals under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme.

A Government source last week indicated that most of the Afghan arrivals would be accommodated in EROCs in Clonea in Co Waterford, Ballaghaderreen in Co Roscommon and Mosney in Co Meath where there is space available. The same source said a group of 200 people, comprising mainly of female-led households, had been selected to come to Ireland in the coming weeks.

These will be in addition to those who had previously applied for visas to move to Ireland or to relocate through family reunification.

It is understood the first groups to arrive here were all evacuated from Afghanistan in the past week and will largely be made up of Afghan staff from the European External Action Service – the EU’s diplomatic service – and will include finance workers, logisticians, programme officers, secretaries, guards and cleaners.