The housing crisis is deeply affecting international students who come to Ireland to study and is putting the country's reputation abroad at risk, according to the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS).
ICOS has published the results of a survey of foreign students which documents experiences of overcrowding, scamming, unaffordable rents and the exposure of some students to predators seeking sex in lieu of rent.
819 students from 73 countries filled out the online questionnaire, which was circulated over the course of two weeks this Autumn in several languages.
13% of respondents said that they had been a victim of an accommodation scam while in Ireland with only 11% of those scammed reporting this to gardaí.
5% of respondents said they had either been directly offered a room in exchange for sex or seen an ad for a room in exchange for sex.
Four out of five English language students and one in three studying in higher education said they were sharing a room with at least one other person.
55% said their mental health has suffered as a result of the housing crisis here.
One in ten respondents said that it took them more than 100 days to find accommodation in Ireland.
Overall, nearly half of respondents were not satisfied with their accommodation.
Commenting on the findings, ICOS CEO Laura Harmon said the housing crisis was jeopardising Ireland’s excellent reputation as a study destination and risked undermining work by the colleges to create a quality student experience in Ireland.
She said ICOS was particularly concerned about the evidence of people seeking sex in lieu of rent and was calling for urgent legislation to clamp down on this.
ICOS has made a number of other recommendations including an increase in inspections of private rental properties.
The questionnaire included space for comments from students. Many of the contributions paint a vivid picture of the challenges some students are facing.
One Brazilian English language student wrote: "I am sharing a double bed with a person I don’t know."
Another wrote: "'We sleep in a small space on bunk beds that are very close to each other."
A Bolivian student wrote: "There is only one bathroom for 18 people, we don’t even have space to put our clothes."
About her search for accommodation one female respondent from Brazil recalled: "The person insinuated that the rent could be free for me. I immediately replied that I wasn’t interested and blocked him."
Another wrote: "I ended up in a filthy PUB that was for sale in D2, because a real estate agent kicked me out of a house, 10 days before my 3 month contract expired. There I met many students who had also been scammed, some even worse than mine. It was a very difficult time, I don’t even like to remember it! I don’t know how I managed to stay here."
