The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers is a follow-up to the Swedish Academy award-winning The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp (IDFA, 2024), which followed Sami, Simon and Hasiballah–three residents of an encampment for homeless asylum seekers which was burned down by a far-right mob in Dublin in 2023. In this film, we make the conscious decision to focus on the volunteer response to the latest policy for homeless asylum seekers, rather than focussing on the asylum seekers themselves. In early 2024, the Irish government ceases to provide accommodation to all asylum seekers for the second time. While funding charities to provide tents to homeless asylum seekers, the government simultaneously orders the authorities to prevent the asylum seekers from pitching these tents. In the film, we follow Olivia and her small group of predominantly female volunteers, who spend their mornings and evenings on the streets of Dublin helping homeless asylum seekers try to find a safe place to sleep each night. The volunteers and asylum seekers alike face constant harassment from both far-right politicians and the police.
Rent this work for public screeningsThe Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp
Dennis Harvey
2024, 00:20:00