Ireland in danger of 'sleepwalking into deeply racially divided society'
A new report has found that black people here continue to experience racist violence and harassment on a constant basis.
The Afrophobia study claims that attacks usually take place in public and leave children and women particularly vulnerable.
The work was commissioned by the European Network Against Racism which says it received 189 confidential complaints over the past two years, that is three times more than the number reported to Gardaí.
The ‘scathing’ report into racism in Ireland finds that children are spitting and throwing things at people of African descent, with the support of their parents.
Spokesperson Shane O'Curry has said new Hate Crime laws need to be introduced urgently: “We are really in danger of sleepwalking into a nightmare of a deeply racially divided society if we don’t pay attention right now.
“If it is normalised that people should be racially abused for being black and this then escalates into violence and that violence is taken out against them.
“If those people, when they experience those things, find it hard to find allies among the white Irish population, then you are creating a class of second-class citizens.”
