The Church of Scientology Dublin, which recently came under fire for reportedly exploiting vulnerable asylum seekers, has taken 14 cases to Ireland’s rental watchdog after it received termination notices from the landlord of properties used to house staff.
According to a report by the Irish Independent staff members and “volunteers” are being housed at the Avon Rí resort in Blessington, Co. Wicklow, approximately 21km outside of Dublin. The property is owned by Arturo Ventures Unlimited, which was established in September 2023 and has received close to €1 million in government funding to provide accommodation for asylum seekers.
The landlord issued 14 ‘notices of termination’ to the Church of Scientology, who subsequently made an appeal to the Residential Tenancies Board. In a statement to the Independent, Scientology’s Irish Public Affairs Director Diana Stahl said “the reality is that the landlord had plans to change the use of the property and subsequently issued notices of termination to all tenants, not just to the church.”
Scientology denied they were eviction notices, instead referring to them as “termination notices”.
The statement continues, “several months ago, the church reached an agreement with the landlord to extend the tenancy for its volunteers and members for a period of time we felt would be sufficient to find alternative accommodation.”
Scientology recently made headlines in Ireland after The Irish Times reported Anas Ishtiah, a Jordanian-Palestinian refugee, had been offered help with his application for asylum by the Church in return for working to recruit new members. “He said I’d get a certificate that would help me with my refugee status and give me an advantage to remain in Ireland, and that they would help me with job interviews,” Ishtiah said.
Mr. Ishtiah subsequently created a Whatsapp group and added 200 others who were seeking asylum in Dublin, and encouraged them to volunteer for the Church. 30-50 men were then “rounded up and taken by bus into Dublin’s city centre to hand out anti-drug leaflets to passersby,” the Times reports. “At the end of each day, the men received certificates of participation – a document, they believed, which would help with their asylum claim.”
Speaking to the press in Dublin on Saturday, Green Party leader and Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman said “international protection applications are examined on the basis of the evidence of whether someone faced persecution in their home country, and anyone alleging otherwise is lying. There is no way that sort of exploitation of vulnerable people in order to build the strength of an organisation is acceptable”.
It is unclear whether the properties in Co. Wicklow were being offered to these asylum seekers, or how long the tenancy has been extended for however Arturo Ventures, which owns the site, was described in a July 2024 article as part of a “nexus of companies” run by “individuals who have done very well from the provision of accommodation for both Ukrainians under Temporary Protection and for those seeking International Protection from a randomly diverse group of countries.”
The investigation continues.
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