Thirty-two residents of a temporary accommodation centre for asylum seekers in Cahersiveen have gone on hunger strike.
The residents of the Skellig Star direct provision centre say they will continue to refuse food until they are moved out of the accommodation.
They claim more than 30 people have left the centre because according to their statement, 'they preferred to be on the street' than to continue living in the Cahersiveen facility.
Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly says he's to meet Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman today on the matter.
A spokesman for the asylum seekers living in the former Skellig Star hotel in Cahersiveen says all healthy adults residing there are taking part in the hunger strike; 32 of the 41 residents now living there.
They want to be moved out of the centre which they have described as not being fit for purpose and say they have been traumatised by their experience.
In March, over 100 asylum-seekers were moved from various residential centres in Dublin - including a hotel where a guest had reportedly contracted COVID-19 - and sent to Cahersiveen on one bus.
By the end of April, around 25 residents had contracted the virus.
They're calling on Minister O'Gorman and Justice Minister Helen McEntee to move them out of Cahersiveen immediately - stating their preference for Mosney and Tullamore accommodation centres.
They also want access to social workers.
Residents, along with the wider community of Cahersiveen, have had to deal with cryptosporidium in the water supply; a boil water notice has been in place since July 9th.
The Department of Justice says two litres of bottled water are provided to each resident in the Skellig Star daily, in addition to boiling water.
On Sunday, July 19th, the supply of bottled water in the centre ran out but was replenished the next morning as soon as it could be procured; the department says at no time were residents without access to safe drinking water, responding to concerns raised by Fianna Fáil councillor Norma Moriarty.
Cllr Moriarty says residents told her they were each restricted daily to one litre of drinking water.
