Anti-racism leader condemns ‘frightening’ Rathfarnham attack

The director of an anti-racism group has condemned the alleged racially motivated attack on three young Afghan men living in Ireland.

Three young Afghan men were assaulted by a gang of five men in Rathfarnham on Thursday evening.

The men were punched in the face, kicked and beaten unconscious in an apparent racist attack.

“I find this news both frightening and shocking, but unfortunately also unsurprising,” said Director of the European Network Against Racism, Shane O’Curry.

“The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) has for some time been warning that it is only a matter of time before a premeditated and planned hate crime as serious as this is carried out by people who draw justification for such barbarity from Islamophobic and racist sentiment,” said Mr O’Curry.

“Racism and Islamophobia are on the rise in Ireland, and with it the risk of hate crimes against minorities. Yet Ireland is almost unique among EU and OSCE countries in not having hate-crime legislation, a fact that puts us in contravention of numerous international recommendations and in violation of the EU Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia,” he said.

Mr O’Curry said he hoped gardaí would use the resources it has its disposal to “pursue the attackers with the fullest rigour and bring these people to justice”.

“Unfortunately our research suggests that this may not be the case. Respondents to the iReport.ie racist incident reporting system regularly complain about gardaí not taking racist incidents seriously, and while iReport.ie recorded 137 hate crimes in 2014, gardaí recorded just 45.”

Mr O’Curry urged the new Government to tackle hate crime and give gardaí and courts the resources to deal with it.

“An inclusive republic means a society that is able to protect all within it so that they can enjoy life without fear,” he said.