Sexual Violence Is Rampant In Ireland's Direct Provision Centres

Sexual violence is rampant in direct provision centres according to the anti-trafficking officer at the Immigrant Council of Ireland. 

It's certainly plausible but this clip got me thinking: If the situation is so dire, why can't I remember reading about any sexual assault or sex-trafficking convictions from within the direct provision system. 

Then I recalled a twitter thread from last year. An asylum seeker who had been residing at the Mosney Direct Provision centre used the #MeToo hashtag to disclose the details of a gang rape she claimed she was victim to involving a group of boys.

Adding to the distress of her alleged ordeal was that she claimed despite having informed the gardaí, an Irish Times journalist, her school principle and the DP centre manager, nothing came of it. Her rapists are still living free. She says the family of one rapist threatened and taunted her on social media. 

She claims other girls were raped too and even names one of the accused and shows his photograph. Her thread barely received one like.

While I don't think it's healthy or wise for a society to "believe all women" about any rape accusation on their testimony alone, if she did go to the gardaí with her allegations they do of course deserve to be investigated. So why would she have received such a frigid response if true?

We do know the authorities and the media did cover up allegations last year that the Riverside Park hotel in Macroom which had recently become a direct provision centre was now being used as a base for prostitutes and we also know the Irish government was recently censured in a US State department report for not increasing its efforts to eliminate trafficking into Ireland which the Immigrant Council claimed in 2015 earns Nigerian and Cameroonian sex trafficking gangs €600k per day.

So it is quite possible the authorities and the media are deliberately concealing and choosing not to investigate reports about sexual violence within the direct provision system as after all, the rapists committing these crimes are the same people they keep telling us we need to open up our communities to and do more to welcome and integrate despite most being found to have made fraudulent asylum claims to move here.