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Boycott Aramark, the Direct Provision profiteersCATU Dun Laoghaire will be picketing Avoca in Monkstown on Sat 30th October at 1pm. We are acting in solidarity with the residents of direct provision centres operated by Aramark, the parent company of Avoca.
If Aramark was your landlord you would live in overcrowded accommodation, have to ask permission to have visitors and wouldn’t be allowed to cook. Aramark is paid by the government to provide food to residents (over €1.3 billion has been paid to the operators of direct provision centres since 2001), however it is of a shockingly poor quality. Food served in a Cork direct provision centre was described by residents in 2014 as “inedible or not palatable on any level”.[1] Christmas dinner in Knockalisheen, another DP centre run by Aramark, is made up of a “cold chicken leg served with a spoon of coleslaw and potato salad, a leaf of lettuce, two onion rings and a bit of cucumber, served on a paper plate and wrapped in cling film”.[2]
Throughout the rest of the year the menu is no better and there are no alternatives despite medical or dietary restrictions. Residents are routinely denied extra food, and often end up spending their meagre €38.80 allowance attempting to recreate something of the food they know.[3]
For the last 8 days Nadim Hussain has been on hunger strike in a direct provision centre operated by Aramark, where staff have tried to feed him against his wishes.
Avoca can no longer profit from selling luxury food to our community while routinely denying basic living standards to those its parent company incarcerates.
It because of this cruel treatment that MASI and the Abolish Direct Provision Campaign have called for the boycott of Avoca. CATU Dun Laoghaire supports this boycott and the union as whole is committed to the abolition of carceral institutions, including Direct Provision. CATU will fight for decent housing for everyone.
We will be picketing Avoca on Saturday and raising awareness about what Aramark is doing. Come join us to show your support. Bring signs and placards!
[1] https://irr.org.uk/article/the-companies-who-profit-from-the-direct-provision-system/
[2] https://www.masi.ie/2020/12/25/inside-irelands-system-of-direct-provision-christmas-supper-is-served-cold/
[3] https://universityobserver.ie/food-in-direct-provision/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Avoca, Monkstown Crescent, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, Dublin, Ireland