People with knives and pipes have reportedly attacked 15 asylum seekers sheltering in tents in central Dublin, forcing them to flee.
The attack happened at about 11.30pm on Tuesday night, three hours after asylum seekers from Somalia and Palestine had erected a makeshift camp on City Quay in the Irish capital, local media reported on Wednesday.
Some tents were slashed and thrown in the River Liffey after the refugees ran to a police station, a local man, who declined to be named, told the Irish Times. “They were in shock, traumatised. One man had his documentation thrown in the river.”
There were no reported injuries. Police said they responded to reports of criminal damage and that an investigation was under way.
Roderic O’Gorman, the minister for integration, said any attack on vulnerable people was “deplorable” and that his officials would try to ensure that anyone targeted in the incident would be offered accommodation on Wednesday.
Tension over immigrants and asylum seekers flared this week during a protest against an accommodation site for 500 people in Coolock, north Dublin. Some demonstrators carried “Irish lives matter” placards and scuffled with police and security guards outside the former Crown Paints factory.
Violence escalated when agitators, some masked, set machinery on fire and hurled rocks, bottles and fireworks at police. A security guard was taken away on a stretcher and several police vehicles were damaged. At least 19 people were charged with public order offences.
Authorities erected large concrete blocks around the site on Tuesday. The taoiseach, Simon Harris, condemned the violence. “These actions are criminal and are designed to sow fear and division. We should not accept them being legitimised in any way by describing them as ‘protest’,” he said.
Since 2022 there has been a sharp increase in arson on properties across the country linked to accommodating asylum seekers, with a riot erupting in Dublin last November.
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Dozens of independent and micro-party candidates ran on anti-immigrant platforms in Ireland’s local and European elections last month. A handful were elected.
Politicians from mainstream parties say far-right agitation has fuelled a toxic, menacing environment. On Wednesday Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin leader, made a complaint to police about a threat made online by a man who said he would shoot and kill her, an escalation in what she said was “unacceptable” abuse.