‘Last resort’: Students chain themselves to Government office overnight over refusal of visas

A number of protesters chained themselves to handrails outside the Department of Justice office on Thursday over the refusal of student visas for Palestinians.Covered in blankets and sleeping bags, and surrounded by bags of food, water, and more blankets, the five students remained fastened to the railing at the office’s entrance by means of bike chains, saying it was done as a “last resort”.The Trinity College Dublin (TCD) students had been there since Wednesday night, they said, staying put after a protest was held over the refusal rate of student visas for Palestinians.Speaking shortly after 8.30am on Thursday, they said they had been campaigning and advocating for affected Palestinians “all summer long”.READ MORE“This is our last resort,” said Ava Tuohy, as a CMAT song played from a speaker beside her.The Department of Justice did not respond to requests for confirmation of the number of student visas refused to Palestinian students, except to say that 50 had been granted this year.The protesters maintained that more than a hundred Palestinian students who had secured places at Irish universities, and were due to begin this month, had been denied.“I will be honest, this entire situation has brought me to a point of despair about the humanity of the Irish Government,” said Amy Kennedy, president of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union.The denial of visas for students who have “survived genocide and who continue to study through scholasticide” is “abhorrent and completely incomprehensible”, she added.“It was cold, and I’m very, very damp but I don’t care,” said Kennedy of the overnight stay, adding: “We’re here for a reason. When the department isn’t listening, that isn’t enough, and at that point I’m willing to continue doing stuff like this until they start caring.”Seán Radcliffe, chairman of the TCD Boycott, Divest, Sanction committee, said he had been in contact with affected Palestinian students, connecting them with lawyers and NGOs over the past two months to support them in their appeals.He said he “slept like a baby because I felt like I was doing something”.“It’s hard to turn off the laptop and stop the emails ... I get up at 6am most days to take a call from a student in Gaza,” he said, pointing to a post on social media from one of the affected students.“Three years of war couldn’t break me. But Ireland did,” the post said.A Department of Justice spokeswoman said it “acknowledges the very difficult circumstances facing many Palestinian students”.She said each application is decided on its own merit, and all applicants are “advised that the responsibility is on them to provide as much information in support of their application as is necessary”.She added that appeals are processed “as quickly as possible”.The protesters ultimately remained chained at the office until after midday on Thursday.