Report of Incidents Related to Racism May to October 2002

There has been a 60% increase in the number of incidents reported to the NCCRI compared with each of the two previous reports.

Number of Incidents reported

Report	Period Covered	No. Incidents Reported to the NCCRI
1	May 2001-October 2001	41
2	November 2001- April 2002	40
3	May 2002- October 2002	67

The reasons for this increase are probably multi faceted and interlinked and include the following:

An increase in assaults, abuse and harassment
There has been an apparent increase in the number of assaults, abuse and harassment reported to the NCCRI. Part of the reason for this increase may be related to the general increase in violent crime in recent years. Ireland remains in general a safe country but there are worrying indications of an increase in violence related crime. The Garda Annual Report for 2000 reported an increase of 19% in the overall number of homicides in 2000 compared with the previous year and there was an increase of 131% in the number of assaults in 2000 compared with the previous year . It is therefore likely that if the general level of violence is increasing then violence motivated by racism is also likely to increase.

An increase in the circulation of offensive material
A second factor that may be related to the rise in number of incidents was a steep increase in the circulation of offensive material, particularly in the run up to the General Election (May 2002) and the second Nice Referendum (October 2002). It is evident that there were a small number of extreme groups and individuals intent in stirring up racism and related xenophobia during this period.

The incidents reported relate to three main areas, which are:

• Assaults, abuse and harassment
• Delivery of public and private services
• Misinformation and circulation of offensive material

1. Assaults, Abuse and Harassment

Racist abuse and harassment and other forms of cultural disrespect was the most common form of incident reported to the NCCRI. There were also a number of serious assaults that took place that are highlighted in this section of the report.

Examples

• There was a suspected arson attack on a Nigerian family in a city centre location. The entrance to the apartment block where the family were living was set on fire in the middle of the night. The fire brigade was called and the fire was put out. Two days later, the landlord asked the family to leave the apartment as he had received a call from the perpetrator of the attack, clearly indicating that the attack was motivated by racism. The family were forced to move as a result.
• A Zimbabwean man was seriously assaulted and verbally abused with racist insults by a man in the queue for the cloakroom at a nightclub in Dublin. Subsequent to the attack, the man received a number of stitches in hospital.
• Two Sudanese men were attacked with wine bottles and subjected to racist verbal abuse in Wexford Street, Dublin by a group of young people. The Sudanese men received hospital out patient treatment for their injuries.
• Two Chinese men were verbally abused with racist comments, attacked and sustained knife wounds in a Dublin City Centre location.
• A family living in Tallaght have been subjected to sustained levels of harassment from some other residents in the area, including damage to property and physical abuse. This involved the throwing of stones at cars and house windows and the shouting of abuse.
• A Nigerian living in Dundalk had fire extinguisher powder sprayed through his letterbox.
• 20 Traveller families living in a temporary site near Laytown, County Meath were attacked during the night by a person driving agricultural machinery. Their trailers were covered with effluent from the spray unit and there was substantial damage to their property.
• In the case of a woman of Asian ethnic origin who was attacked by a group of youths in Dublin city centre, a taxi driver and a group of bystanders came to her assistance and the taxi driver drove her home.
• In August 2002, a 50-year old man of Vietnamese-Chinese ethnic origin was fatally assaulted in the Temple Bar area in Dublin's central business district. Two men have since been charged in relation to this incident. At the time it was reported by the media that there might have been racist insults used during the attack, however the Garda Press Office have not confirmed that these reports are accurate. The media reported that the President of the Irish-Chinese Association said that there had been an increase in racist attacks on the Chinese community in recent months (media report).
• In May 2002 the media reported that a Romanian national had his faced slashed by one of a group of men in Gardiner Place, Dublin after being subjected to racist and verbal abuse (media report).
• In June 2002, two Japanese nationals were subjected to an attack by youths in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. They were punched and kicked and had their hair pulled at an event organised to mark the homecoming of the Ireland football team from the World Cup (media report).

2. Delivery of Public and Private Services

There have been a number of incidents reported to the NCCRI in relation to the delivery of public and private services. The following serve as examples:

(1) Public Services

Government Agencies

• An Angolan national, a resident in Ireland, contends he was subjected to racist abuse comments on the phone from an official in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform when enquiring about his travel documents.
• Two British nationals of black ethnic origin working in Dublin contended that on more than one occasion they were subjected to abuse/racist attitudes from a small number of immigration officials at Dublin Airport. They emphasised that in their experience the majority of immigration officials in Dublin Airport were conscientious and law-abiding.
• An Asian woman was attacked in the street by a group of young people in Dublin city centre and a Garda was present in the immediate aftermath. However it was alleged that he made no attempt to approach the victim or take a statement from her or other witnesses at the scene.

Operation Hyphen

Operation Hyphen was implemented in July 2002 to apprehend illegal immigrants residing in Ireland. This operation was the focus of much media attention and subsequent debate in the Oireachtas.

The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) received nineteen separate representations from individuals or representatives of organisations working with minority ethnic groups following Operation Hyphen which took place over two days in July 2002. In addition to individuals who raised concern about the operation, key organisations also voiced their concerns, including:

• The Irish Refugee Council.
• The Islamic Cultural Centre.
• The National Women's Council of Ireland.
• The Irish Commission for Justice and Peace (Irish Bishop's Initiative).
  

Their concerns were as follows:

• The concern that the nature of the operation could convey that whole communities are being targeted rather than individuals suspected of being in Ireland illegally. The point was raised as to why such people could not have been detained in more sensitive lower-key operations.

• There was widespread concern that the overall impact of Operation Hyphen may be counterproductive in the long term. The operation has the potential of eroding good relationships built up in some areas between local Garda Stations and new communities.

• A significant number of people brought in for questioning were legally entitled to be in Ireland. One example was a hotel owner in the west of Ireland. The residency quarters of the hotel were raided on the morning of 24th July. Six people were detained, five of which had valid work permits and the other one was an asylum seeker who had not been served with a deportation order. The hotel owner said the detentions caused significant disruption to business and had caused bad feeling among his staff.

• In two reports there were complaints that immediate family/friends were not informed about the location of people being detained. One report to the NCCRI contended that a woman was detained in Clover Hill prison and separated from her children. Her husband was not informed of where his wife was being held and it took him three days to find her.
• In some areas local Gardai were stopping people in the street and asking them for their identification and residence documents. There were reports of four Islamic people stopped in this way (two women and two men). Two were Irish citizens and the other two had a legal right to remain in Ireland. The Gardai focussed on questioning the women who were in traditional Islamic dress.

Response of the NCCRI

The NCCRI's primary concern is the medium to long-term impact that such operations have on whole communities no matter how professional individual Gardai respond in such operations. The NCCRI is concerned from the reports we have received that the adoption of net operations as a standard tactic will have a negative impact on relations between the Gardai and minority ethnic communities. The NCCRI met with senior representatives from the Gardai to discuss these concerns.

Health
A group of Filipino nurses working in a hospital in Dublin reported discriminatory treatment from some members of the hospital management including constant negative comments regarding their work with inappropriate reference to their nationality. The NCCRI has offered to undertake awareness training with the Hospital.

Education
A Nigerian national was subjected to racist comments and jokes at an academic institution based in Dublin. He contended that when he complained to the principal of the institution, his complaint was ignored.

Transport
In September 2002 a school bus driver in Dundalk was convicted under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 for using words that could stir up hatred and for the use of threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour towards a 12-year-old boy (media report).

Housing
There were issues arising from the Housing Provision (Miscellaneous) Bill 2002 on the Travelling Community, which provides for fine or imprisonment for trespass of private or public land. Travellers' organisations have detailed instances where the legislation is being used against individual families who are on council accommodation waiting lists. In other words some Councils are effectively evicting people who are already homeless due to the lack of site and other provision. This is contrary to the Governments stated intent when the legislation was introduced.

(2) Private Sector
In the south-western part of the country a landlord offered accommodation to a Nigerian man. The estate agents handling the property blocked the agreement, saying that they had found a more suitable tenant. An organisation working with minority ethnic groups in the area commented that this type of situation is not uncommon.

• There were a number of complaints in relation to racist comments or other forms of cultural disrespect made by employees in shops and restaurants to customers from Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Scotland.
• A South African national reported that a taxi driver had refused her access to his cab without giving a reason and proceeded to allow the next person access to the cab.
• A woman in Islamic dress was denied access to changing rooms in a large department store in Dublin and was subsequently accused of trying to steal goods. The security guard was summoned and immediately cleared the woman of any wrongdoing. The woman suffered considerable distress as a result of the incident.

3. Misinformation and the Circulation of Offensive Material

There has been an upsurge in racist and linked offensive literature in the period covered by this report. In the period around the general election and the Nice Referendum, stickers were put on lampposts in Dublin inner city, encouraging people to 'take action' on the 'invasion' of foreigners. Four different types of stickers were forwarded to the NCCRI. Similar and identical stickers were also encountered in areas outside Dublin.

Websites continue to be a problem. In July 2002, a self styled group of 'concerned citizens' in Limerick distributed pamphlets, inviting people to visit a website that contains racist material. There are now at least seven such websites operating with a specific focus on Ireland. It is increasingly clear that effective action to close such sites will only be forthcoming through increased cooperation at a transnational level, and the specific outlawing of such sites in the revision of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act.

There has been a significant increase in the number of racist and offensive e-mails, letters and texts being sent to organisations working against racism. 15 different examples of racist mail (email and post) were forwarded to or received by the NCCRI in the past six months. It was further reported that a mobile phone was being used to send abusive texts to individuals and to give out racist messages. The NCCRI contacted the mobile phone company in question asking that the number be investigated and cut off if necessary. The phone company advised that any individual who receives such messages should make a formal complaint to the Gardai and that the company will co-operate with the Gardai in any investigation.

Public Representatives
In Cork, a local independent councillor intervened on behalf of residents of a housing estate who were opposing to the allocation of a house in the estate to members of the Traveller Community by the local housing authorities. No family from the Traveller community was subsequently housed in the estate. The politician then sent a letter to all the residents of the estate outlining how the situation had been successfully resolved.

Second Referendum on the Nice Treaty
In July 2002, the NCCRI issued a press statements outlining concern over scare mongering tactics being used by a vocal minority within the 'No' campaign in the build up to the second referendum on the Nice Treaty. These contended that EU enlargement would inevitably result in an immediate and unsustainable increase in immigration from Central and Eastern Europe into Ireland. The NCCRI welcomed the rejection of this argument from many of those involved in both the 'No' and 'Yes' campaigns.

The Media
The presenter of a Cork morning radio programme gave substantial and largely unchallenged airtime to aggrieved and outraged listeners concerning the rumour that children of asylum seekers were a significant public health risk to other children. The rumour had built up offensive speculation and exaggeration about the potential health risks posed by children of asylum seekers attending local schools and this was further reinforced by an article that appeared in a Cork local newspaper in April.

In the print media, members of the public brought a number of articles to the attention of the NCCRI that could potentially be regarded as an incitement to hatred. In one community newspaper, there was a full-page article on the benefits that refugees received with a comparison made between a single refugee parent and a single Irish parent. The article served to endorse the misinformation and hype about the refugee and asylum seeking community and it printed a menu, claiming that this was what asylum seekers received every day.

Regarding the broadcast media, the NCCRI received a complaint from a viewer over the televising of DW Griffiths controversial and racist 'Birth of a Nation' (1915) by a national television station at lunchtime just before the children's programmes. The NCCRI wrote to the station recognising the station right to show the film in question but questioning the showing of the film at a time when children would be watching and that the film should be aired in an appropriate context. The station responded to the criticism on the matter, taking into account the concerns of the NCCRI.

In the print media many articles were printed that served to fuel the myths and misinformation in the public mind regarding certain communities. Headlines like 'Slam the door on the spongers' and 'Free cars for refugees' do little to inform the public and do much to generate feelings of xenophobia towards people of different ethnic origins.

4. Recommendations
The forthcoming government National Action Plan Against Racism provides an opportunity for some of the issues raised in this report to be addressed in a comprehensive way.

• The issue of racial assaults continues to be an urgent priority. The role of the Gardai is key as is the ongoing work of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Unit. The need prevails for closer monitoring of the role of immigration officers and for anti-racism and intercultural awareness training to be mainstreamed by the Gardai. There is also the need for a strong, independent and transparent police complaints system.
  
  
• The National Crime Council has been established by the Government to advise on all aspects of crime. The National Crime Council should integrate a strong focus on tackling racial/racist crime, including violence in its work in identifying the underlying causes of crime, consulting closely with minority ethnic groups and expert and specialised bodies.
  
  
• Legislation outlawing incitement to hatred in the State needs to be strengthened in acting as a deterrent for potential perpetrators of racial crime. Any review of the Act should be extended to a comprehensive review of legislation that has the potential to impact on racial violence and incitement. Such a review should also seek to determine if Irish legislation is adequate to protect people against new forms of racism, such as racism through the Internet.
  
  
• The role of political parties in monitoring and responding to any deviation from the Anti-Racism Protocol covering elections is important in light of the conduct of certain candidates during the general election in May 2002 and the lead up to the Nice referendum in September/October 2002.
  
  
• There is the need to ensure that police operations do not cut across the work being undertaken to build up trust and confidence with minority ethnic groups. Regarding the possibility of future operations similar to Operation Hyphen, the NCCRI would recommend the use of smaller and more focused, low-key operations in enforcing the immigration and residence law so as not to alienate or endanger the trust of minority communities in Ireland.
  
  
• There is a continuing need for sections of the media, in particular local and regional media not to engage in sensationalising issues while respecting their right to report what is in the public interest. In particular more context and background should be provided where possible.
  
  
• The need to continue to challenge the small number of local politicians who are intent on making generalised, emotive and derogatory comments about minority ethnic groups.