Featured Image: Shreyas Sane on Unsplash
Ireland’s Electric Picnic festival site is set to welcome hundreds of refugees, which will be housed in tented accommodation for up to six weeks.
The country’s Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) confirmed the news to the BBC.
Electric Picnic, which is hosted in County Laois, took place over the weekend and the site was set up to house the refugees for the next six weeks. The department is hoping the site will be able to operate at full capacity by Thursday, with provisions for hot meals, hot water and hot shower facilities, toilets, and access to first aid.
Ireland’s government has accommodated upwards of 90,000 people seeking refuge since February 2021, with the majority fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Roughly 70,000 guests attended the festival this year, with performances from Billie Eilish, Niall Horan, The Killers and more.
A DCEDIY spokesperson told the BBC: “The summer months have seen an increase in the number of arrivals from Ukraine, with more than 10,000 people fleeing here since 1 May, an average of around 650 people per week.
“It is estimated that up to 500 people could continue to arrive over the next weeks from Ukraine.”
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