Immigrants say attacks are due to racism

Some time after 3 a.m. on May 1st, Mr Belmondo Wantete heard a loud knock at his Drimnagh home. He went downstairs and saw a group of men in plain clothes, brandishing what they said was a search warrant.

With his two children sleeping upstairs, Mr Wantete was reluctant to open the door. Quickly, though, the gardai broke it open anyway.

What happened then is disputed. One of the gardai gave evidence in the District Court this week that Mr Wantete started to attack them, that he bit one garda in the neck and kicked another on the shins.

But Mr Wantete, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, says it was he who was beaten, and called racist names. He says he was taken, naked and handcuffed before his children, to the waiting police car and that his wife managed to throw a pair of trousers in after him before he was taken to the local station.

The house was extensively searched and a collection of children's medicines was taken away, the family say. Mr Wantete appeared in Court 44 last Thursday charged with assaulting a garda. He was remanded on bail until next month.

The family are recognised refugees - their younger child was born here - who have been in Ireland for over two years. Fellow refugees claim the search was a case of mistaken identity and that the gardai were searching for Nigerian credit-card fraudsters who may have been living in the area.

Whatever about the theories, the incident marks yet another depressing turn in the state of race relations in Dublin. The Association of Refugees and Asylum-seekers in Ireland described the charge as an "outrage against humanity."

Feelings among asylum-seekers are running high following a series of unprovoked attacks on immigrants over the past month. ARASI puts their number at 14, many of them carried out in broad daylight. One victim, they say, was a six months pregnant woman.

Last Easter Sunday David M'Carthy from Sierra Leone had almost reached his home in Rialto when he was set upon by three men. They first shouted obscenities and then slapped him. He was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked before managing to escape.

A quiet-spoken young man who came to Ireland to read development studies, Mr M'Carthy stayed on and sought asylum here after civil war broke out in his country last year. While waiting for his case to be heard, he has worked on a voluntary basis for the relief agency Concern.

He blames the Government's "ineptitude" in handling refugee issues, as well as negative media reporting, for the increase in racial attacks. "But I do not believe the Irish are racist. I myself was raised and educated by Irish Catholic missionaries in Sierra Leone."

Other attacks monitored by ARASI include:

Landu Kulubatulu, a 17-year-old Congolese youth who received 17 stitches in the head after being slashed with a bottle last month. Friends say he no longer goes out because of fears of further attacks.

Mr A (he does not want his name disclosed) was verbally and physically attacked by two men on the doorstep of a grocer's where he had gone to buy food near his home in Rialto.

Cele from Congo, who was attacked and had a dog set upon him while on his way to a prayer meeting.

People were being attacked in Dublin long before asylum-seekers ever came here. But racial attacks carry with them the seed of something very serious and sinister.

In the absence of leadership from the authorities, a small number of violent racists are taking the initiative. Somewhere in the background lurk a few propagandists, who have been distributing leaflets inciting hatred against blacks.

One of these which is in circulation in Templeogue rails - in extremely bad English - against "the worthless scum of the British Empire - traitors to their own countrys in Africa who cowardly joined the British enslaved, suckers who wanted to befriend them rather than fight them.

"They will out-populate us and take over. . .they have bought up most of the houses and shops. . .Blacks breed lots of children for more dole."

ARASI says gardai in the north and south inner city have advised asylum-seekers for their own safety not to go out at night.

Partly for protection and partly because of their growing numbers, asylum-seekers have begun congregating in groups in the city. But these bands of mostly black young males have attracted the attention of the Garda, as well as giving the impression that gangs are being formed.

TENSION is increasing as the Department of Justice works its way through the backlog of asylum cases. The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has already made it clear that he expects up to 90 per cent of cases to be rejected.

Even if the Minister uses his discretion to allow some of those whose cases have been rejected to stay on humanitarian grounds, the Department is determined to deport most asylum-seekers.

Most asylum-seekers in the district courts are charged with minor offences. Observers say the patterns are very country-specific; while many nationalities have no involvement in crime, gypsies are frequently arraigned on public order charges and a small number of Nigerians have made their country's name synonymous with credit card fraud.

There was one ray of hope in this bleak picture this week. The case of the Burundian couple, Mr Joseph Ntidendereza and Ms Carinie Barwendere, who are facing deportation back to Germany and thence possibly to Burundi, has elicited a massive response from the public since it featured in The Irish Times earlier this week.

Politicians, neighbours, the local priest and football club and many others have all clubbed together to help the couple. But Mr Ntidendereza and Ms Barwendere differ from other asylum-seekers in one respect. The Eastern Health Board put them up in a simple but comfortable hostel in Blackrock.

This gave them the opportunity to integrate with Irish people, a chance denied to the majority of asylum-seekers who are lumped together in inner-city districts as well as being prevented from working.

Contact can help break down racial barriers, as Mr Ntidendereza's and Ms Barwendere's case shows. Just as friends were rallying to their cause, Concern's switchboard was jammed with hate calls after the relief agency called on the Minister not to deport the couple and their children.