Some 78 per cent of asylum seekers, and 95 per cent of African asylum-seekers, have experienced racially motivated verbal or physical attacks, a survey has found. Twenty per cent of Africans have been physically assaulted.
The survey, of 157 asylum-seekers chosen in approximate relation to their proportion of all asylum-seekers, was carried out through interviews at 10 locations by the Pilgrim House Community, a Wexford-based Catholic organisation which works with refugees. Of those interviewed, 80 per cent were African, 17 per cent from eastern Europe and 3 per cent from Arab countries. Some 26 per cent were female. The survey found that 95 per cent of African asylum-seekers had experienced verbal abuse, compared to 14 per cent of those from eastern Europe. One in every five Africans had been physically assaulted and a quarter of those who had been assaulted were women. No non-African asylum seeker interviewed had been physically assaulted.
Some 66 per cent of those interviewed said they would advise another person from their country not to seek asylum in Ireland. However 66 per cent also thought their chances of obtaining refugee status in Ireland were fair, good or excellent. In the past three years more than 9,000 people have applied for asylum in Ireland.
The Pilgrim House Community said: "The sole purpose of this research is to lead towards a recommendation that the Irish Christian churches call repeatedly and persistently, for no matter how long it takes, for an amnesty for those asylum-seekers who are here, and an open and generous asylum policy for those who will seek refuge here in the future."
The founder of the Pilgrim House Community, Ms Helena O'Leary, speaking at the survey's launch at the community's restaurant for refugees and asylum-seekers in Dublin, quoted one African asylum-seeker saying he came to Ireland "because of knowing Irish missionaries and believing that Christ's call - `when I was hungry you fed me, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, when I was a stranger you made me welcome' - would lead to me being welcomed here".