How Irish reporters caught Scientology’s sneaky exploitation of asylum seekers

[Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman speaking on the Irish Times revelation]

Last week, while we were celebrating Scientology’s new slide show about its IAS party, we noted that the Irish Times had published a new investigation showing how Scientology was preying on vulnerable asylum seekers in Dublin.

Now, the paper has put out a podcast that helps explain more about what was going on and how reporters Sorcha Pollak and Conor Gallagher got the story.

They did a terrific job learning about how the Ideal Org in Dublin was recruiting men (and they only seem to be men) who are hoping to be given asylum after fleeing terrible conditions in their home countries.

Here’s how the Irish Times described the podcast, which is presented by Bernice Harrison…

The Irish branch of the Church of Scientology has been going into an international protection asylum centre in Dublin and recruiting the refugees living there for all types of work, from cleaning parks to handing out anti-drug leaflets on the streets of the capital.

The men are not paid, instead they are given a “certificate” which they are told will help them in their asylum applications.

Many of the people strolling though Dublin who take a leaflet off one of these men will not be aware that it originates in the Church of Scientology.

Irish Times reporters Sorcha Pollak and Conor Gallagher investigated this practice and they talked to some of the vulnerable men who felt taken in by the scheme. They explain to In the News.

And why is Scientology – a very wealthy organisation with a tiny membership in Ireland – operating in this way?

We just wanted to add a few observations after listening to the fine podcast and the explanations of what Scientology is and what they’re doing in Ireland.

Ireland has been particularly interesting because the Irish people have demonstrated zero interest in Scientology. In six years, the number of Irish people identifying themselves as Scientologists went from 87 in the 2016 census to 132 in 2022 in a country of 5 million.

But at the same time, Scientology has invested enormous amounts of money in Ireland that seems to make no sense. Until, that is, you consider Tom Cruise.

In 2013, Cruise visited Dublin for the premiere of Oblivion, and he was presented with a certificate by the government attesting to his Irish heritage. Cruise said he was honored and expressed his love for the country.

Ever since then, his best pal, Scientology leader David Miscavige, has been on a buying spree on the Emerald Isle. He’s pumped millions into opening a new Ideal Org and community center in a Dublin suburb (2017), a new national office in Dublin itself (2016), and a new Narconon in County Meath which has yet to open its doors.

That’s tens of millions spent on facilities where there is literally no interest in Scientology, as the census shows. And we really do believe it’s all explained by Miscavige’s bromance with Cruise.

Now, once a Scientology facility is in place, for whatever reason, it then operates like any other Scientology outlet under the rules established by founder L. Ron Hubbard. And those rules dictate that church staffers and Sea Org workers operate like the world is about to end with a mad focus on increasing their “stats.”

In other words, it really doesn’t matter that the Irish people have more sense than to join Scientology. The Scientologists there must still show that they are “expanding.” So, that’s why they’re desperately trying to recruit the most vulnerable people they have been able to find, refugees who will do anything to help their cases for asylum.

A couple of things the Irish Times reporters said were perhaps more telling than they realized. First, that the asylum seekers were required to submit to being photographed each day, and that they were asked to sit in “staring” exercises.

In the podcast, the reporters seemed a little unsure if the asylum seekers were actually being pushed into becoming Scientologists themselves. But the detail about staring gives the game away. That, of course, is Training Routine Zero, TR-0, the staring exercises that are the very first exercises that a Scientologist goes through as they begin their very long journey up the increasingly expensive “Bridge to Total Freedom.” So yes, these men were being recruited to become Scientologists. Why? Again, for the stats.

And as to being photographed, it’s also important to remember that everything Scientology does has to be turned into public relations opportunities, not necessarily for outsiders or the press, but for other Scientologists.

With dwindling membership and a terrible public reputation, Scientology isn’t gaining ground with the larger public. So leader David Miscavige spends most of his time convincing his wealthy donors that Scientology is still a going concern. How? With photos of the sneaky front groups like Drug Free World and Volunteer Ministers doing things for the camera.

We know none of it makes sense, and we can sympathize with some of the confusion expressed in the podcast. But ultimately, Scientology itself makes no sense, its actions defy logic, but we’re glad that journalists like these are exposing the church’s sneaky tricks that still do manage to snare a few people into this money-sucking scam.

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Chris Shelton is going Straight Up and Vertical

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

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