ARMED POLICE officers were providing protection for over 100 Romanians who after being forced from their homes in a series of racist attacks were last night moved to temporary emergency accommodation in Belfast.
The spate of attacks on the Romanians, who are members of the Roma community, began yesterday week and continued in the subsequent days. The families finally were compelled to take refuge in the hall of the City Church on Tuesday night, moving to a Belfast city council tennis arena yesterday morning.
After a day of frantic activity involving politicians from all parties including Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and various agencies the SDLP minister for social development Margaret Ritchie said that temporary housing was found for the 20 Roma families.
The attacks were blamed on loyalists from the Village area of south Belfast. Loyalist representatives insisted that the UDA in the area was not implicated and that the paramilitary organisation totally opposed the attacks and intimidation.
Jackie McDonald, the so-called UDA brigadier in south Belfast, attempted to call on the Romanian families at the Ozone tennis centre yesterday evening but was prevented from entering by police.
He afterwards condemned the attacks and said he was working with the loyalist community to try to prevent further attacks. The housing has been provided for a week with the possibility of further accommodation being found thereafter. Maria Fechete, who with her two children, was among those forced from their home, said that the overwhelming majority of the families wanted to return home. “We want to go back home to Romania, everybody right now does. I want to go home because I have here two kids and I want my kids to be safe,” she said. She said she had not slept for a week because of the continuing attacks.
Another man showed a wound he had received to his torso in one of the attacks. Other Romanians also said they wished to return to Romania. However, at the moment there is no facility for money to be provided for the families from the statutory bodies although Mr McGuinness indicated that if repatriation money were required it would be provided.
In the House of Commons, British prime minister Gordon Brown, who condemned the attacks, said the families must be helped. “I hope the authorities are able to take all the action necessary to protect them,” he said.
Mr McGuinness said the attacks were an “outrage” and an “affront to the rights of citizens in this city”.
Alliance Assembly member Anna Lo said that the families told her that on one occasion a man brandished a gun and told them they must leave the area of south Belfast off the Lisburn Road, where they lived. She was also told that literature from the British racist group, Combat 18 was distributed in the area.
She was very critical of how the PSNI dealt with the issue over the past week. She said that the families had made a number of 999 calls when attacked and some weren’t responded to or that it took two hours and more for police to respond.
The local PSNI commander Supt Chris Noble defended the police handling of the issue. He appeared to accept that neither the UDA nor other paramilitary groups were implicated. “The information that I have at the moment is that there is no co-ordination; there is no authorisation by any other groups,” he said.
The Romanian general consul in London, Dr Mihai Delcea, is to meet Ms Ritchie to discuss what should be done to help the families.
