health – New Horizon Athlone

Want to Join the Circus?

Come have fun and learn new and different skills! Galway Community Circus, Gateway Youth Project, Foroige and New Horizon offer the Sunday Circus skills workshop.…

Gerry Callaghan 2022-01-23

Walking with Poles and Men on the Move

Two great new fitness opportunities from Westmeath Sports Partnership and Athlone Regional Sports centre. Walking with Poles Outdoor Programme Walking with poles is a great…

Gerry Callaghan 2021-09-03

Coping with Covid-19

As we all know there are serious measures being taken nationally to combat the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Direct provision sites are a particular…

Gerry Callaghan 2020-03-14

FAQ’s

We are a front line refugee support group mainly working on the Lissywollen Direct Provision site in Athlone. Our focus is on providing information and help to the 300 (on average) residents living there.

We also work on the Temple Direct Provision site in Horseleap, Moate.

Everyone in the DP sites in Athlone and Temple is what is described as a ‘Convention’ refugee. People who have arrived in Ireland under a United Nations resettlement program are known as ‘Programme’ refugees.

Convention refugees are people who have made their own way to Ireland and have applied for recognition of refugee status when they arrive.

Various official and unofficial routes and methods are used to travel to Ireland. These change continually, depending on weather conditions and enforcement levels at crossings.

On arrival people are normally housed for a few weeks in Baleskin, near Dublin airport. They are then dispersed to various direct provision centres around the country.

People can get protection if they meet the conditions set out in The United Nations Convention on Protection of Refugees.

See Definition of a Refugee