Safe from attack
June 17, 2009
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the attacks, saying he hoped that the authorities in Northern Ireland would take "all the action necessary" to protect the Romanians.
Up to 115 frightened men, women and children were moved to a church in south Belfast late on Tuesday after they had been pelted with bricks and bottles by a group of young men police called "drunken racist thugs."
The incident, the most serious in recent times involving migrants in Northern Ireland, occurred when the group of young men attacked an anti-racism demonstration, in which the Romanians were taking part.
According to reports, the men were giving Nazi salutes and chanting "Heil Hitler" as they attacked the Romanians.
Support for the victims
"We shall ensure that these racist criminals don't have their way," Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland's deputy leader, said as he visited the families in their emergency shelters In Belfast.
His words were echoed by Jeffrey Donaldson, a leading Protestant politician, who urged the community to "show a united front against this kind of racism."
McGuinness called the events a "totally shameful episode" while Naomi Long, the mayor of Belfast, said she would not "tolerate anybody being driven from the city."
"They have a right to be in Belfast. They are part of the fabric of this city. I want to see them treated with the respect and dignity that I would demand for every other citizen," she said.
Xenophobia nothing new in Northern Ireland
However, social workers and several politicians have said the attacks are the result of simmering discontent following the arrival of workers from eastern Europe in Northern Ireland.
Current statistics say 40,000 Poles, 15,000 Lithuanians and 10,000 Slovaks have settled in Northern Ireland since 2004, with the majority of the Romanians having arrived over the past year.
On the streets of Belfast, complaints voiced against the Romanians are common enough. The "migrants from the East," it can often be heard, "are taking local jobs away and begging in the streets."
A 2007 opinion poll on public attitudes towards migrant workers in the province, which has a population of 1.7 million, showed that 52 percent believed the government should place greater restrictions on migrant workers.
About 85 percent took the view that migrant workers were prepared to work for "lower wages," while 63 percent said they were placing a "strain on public services."
According to experts, links between Protestant extremist paramilitary organizations and neo-Nazi groupings in Northern Ireland have long existed.
glb/dpa/Reuters/AP
Editor: Susan Houlton