This is one of the many reasons we need to pay much higher property taxes so local authorities have the resources to fund proper housing inspectorates.
Let’s call a spade a spade here – they are not students. They are here to work. If they cannot afford to live here, they should return to their home countries.
Probably time to require that universities and language schools show, as a condition of visas for their students, that they have secured accomodation for the students.
I listened to the report this morning on the radio. The journalist did a great job. Disgraceful conditions to live in and being forced to move every few weeks after the building they’re moved to is sold. The landlord was pretending he didn’t know his own agency was making 4.5k a month on students being cramped into these shitholes, even though he was supplying the bunk beds.
Sweet Home Accommodation sound like parasites.
>Amanda cries as she tells us that she cannot bring herself to tell her parents about the conditions she is living in here. She says they would be too upset if they knew and they would beg her to come home.
>”I would say to all of my friends in Brazil. Please don’t come to Ireland. Never. We are living here trying to follow a dream but it’s a nightmare.”
Wtf is wrong with us that this type of crap is allowed to happen?
And how does Damien English think that more than doubling the international visas is a good idea when there’s no accommodation?
We’ve taken in about 35,000 Ukrainian people, many of whom are living in less than ideal conditions and Damien English wants to add an extra 32,250 international visas to the 16,750 issued last year. Who is it benefitting? Not the people forced to pay extortionate rents to parasitic landlords I’d imagine…. or families being evicted.
It seems FFG are playing the tune the property developers and landlords want to hear without a care about all the people in unstable accommodation.
I feel so sorry for these kids. Not only are their dreams shattered in many ways, but they’ve been left out of pocket. €600 is a lot more money in Brazil then it is in Dublin, even for a well off family there.
Fuck scammers, fuck landlords in general.
I really hope that the judges go to town on the perpetrators but this case even reaching the Central Criminal Court seems unlikely given how light touch we are on crime.
This stood out to me in the report:
“According to the Irish Council for Overseas Students (ICOS), there are almost 150,000 international students attending English language programmes here. An additional 32,000 are pursuing higher education courses. The students are worth €2.4 billion to the Irish economy”
I knew a lot of those language schools are a bit of a scam but those are crazy numbers, there’s a lot of people being exploited by the schools, and then getting exploited by landlords.
Actual journalism? Wtf. I guess I’m just missing whatever is being sold to us here.
The government shouldn’t issue the visa if the student doesn’t have the funds to cover full rent for the term of the visa and a rental agreement. Coming here and planning on working shouldn’t be enough to get a visa. If the fake language school go out of business so be it.
Among other issues, the report looked into this Sweet Home Accomodation scammers (not to call them something else), and the terrible conditions this agency provided to the tenants.
Sweet Home Accomodation is owned by a foreigner.
So what makes the news is one company, owned by a foreigner exploiting foreigners.
It seems to me a very targeted report, and it also deals with a tiny fraction of the whole issue.
Everyone either is, has, or knows somebody that is living in a small smelly place, paying half of their salary for the top of a bunkbed.
The living conditions these students found themselves in apply to hundreds if not thousands of many others (mainly exploited south american foreign language students) who live in properties owned mainly by Irish owners (either landlords or companies)
I think it would be very refreshing if RTE would go and investigate these Irish owned properties and living conditions, too.
10 comments
This is one of the many reasons we need to pay much higher property taxes so local authorities have the resources to fund proper housing inspectorates.
Let’s call a spade a spade here – they are not students. They are here to work. If they cannot afford to live here, they should return to their home countries.
Probably time to require that universities and language schools show, as a condition of visas for their students, that they have secured accomodation for the students.
I listened to the report this morning on the radio. The journalist did a great job. Disgraceful conditions to live in and being forced to move every few weeks after the building they’re moved to is sold. The landlord was pretending he didn’t know his own agency was making 4.5k a month on students being cramped into these shitholes, even though he was supplying the bunk beds.
Sweet Home Accommodation sound like parasites.
>Amanda cries as she tells us that she cannot bring herself to tell her parents about the conditions she is living in here. She says they would be too upset if they knew and they would beg her to come home.
>”I would say to all of my friends in Brazil. Please don’t come to Ireland. Never. We are living here trying to follow a dream but it’s a nightmare.”
Wtf is wrong with us that this type of crap is allowed to happen?
And how does Damien English think that more than doubling the international visas is a good idea when there’s no accommodation?
https://www.businesspost.ie/news/english-says-40000-non-eu-work-permits-are-in-offing-to-ease-labour-pressures/
We’ve taken in about 35,000 Ukrainian people, many of whom are living in less than ideal conditions and Damien English wants to add an extra 32,250 international visas to the 16,750 issued last year. Who is it benefitting? Not the people forced to pay extortionate rents to parasitic landlords I’d imagine…. or families being evicted.
It seems FFG are playing the tune the property developers and landlords want to hear without a care about all the people in unstable accommodation.
I feel so sorry for these kids. Not only are their dreams shattered in many ways, but they’ve been left out of pocket. €600 is a lot more money in Brazil then it is in Dublin, even for a well off family there.
Fuck scammers, fuck landlords in general.
I really hope that the judges go to town on the perpetrators but this case even reaching the Central Criminal Court seems unlikely given how light touch we are on crime.
This stood out to me in the report:
“According to the Irish Council for Overseas Students (ICOS), there are almost 150,000 international students attending English language programmes here. An additional 32,000 are pursuing higher education courses. The students are worth €2.4 billion to the Irish economy”
I knew a lot of those language schools are a bit of a scam but those are crazy numbers, there’s a lot of people being exploited by the schools, and then getting exploited by landlords.
Actual journalism? Wtf. I guess I’m just missing whatever is being sold to us here.
The government shouldn’t issue the visa if the student doesn’t have the funds to cover full rent for the term of the visa and a rental agreement. Coming here and planning on working shouldn’t be enough to get a visa. If the fake language school go out of business so be it.
Among other issues, the report looked into this Sweet Home Accomodation scammers (not to call them something else), and the terrible conditions this agency provided to the tenants.
Sweet Home Accomodation is owned by a foreigner.
So what makes the news is one company, owned by a foreigner exploiting foreigners.
It seems to me a very targeted report, and it also deals with a tiny fraction of the whole issue.
Everyone either is, has, or knows somebody that is living in a small smelly place, paying half of their salary for the top of a bunkbed.
The living conditions these students found themselves in apply to hundreds if not thousands of many others (mainly exploited south american foreign language students) who live in properties owned mainly by Irish owners (either landlords or companies)
I think it would be very refreshing if RTE would go and investigate these Irish owned properties and living conditions, too.