Sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin is becoming “more dangerous” for asylum seekers as videos and images targeting international protection applicants with anti-immigrant rhetoric spread online, volunteers have warned.
One volunteer, who has been supporting homeless asylum-seeking men in south Dublin since April, has “consistently seen people hurling abuse at these men, whether it’s verbally, or the simple act of filming them”.
“The online rhetoric has always been there but I do see it’s becoming more dangerous,” said the volunteer.
The location of makeshift campsites regularly appeared on social media platforms TikTok or X within hours of the men setting up camp, she added. “When the men started camping along the canals people became more brazen in how they filmed them. Tents were slashed and urinated on. It’s constant abuse.”
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Earlier this month, a group of Palestinian asylum seekers were allegedly attacked in Finglas with hammers, knives and sticks and “threatened with death” after their image, and videos showing their location, were posted on social media. Two of the Palestinian men were hospitalised following the attack.
The men’s image was posted by Stephen Redmond, who ran as a National Party candidate in the June local elections, with the hashtag “MakeIrelandIrishAgain” and the claim that Finglas village “is starting to look more like Downtown Damascus each week”. He did not respond to an Irish Times request to comment.
Incidents involving migrants have continued into this month.
Two videos, posted on August 2nd, show tents pitched in the local Charlestown park, urging locals to be “very vigilant with the kids” because “no one knows who these migrants are, and what they’re capable of”.
A fortnight earlier, a group of male asylum seekers fled for their safety after their tents on Dublin’s City Quay were allegedly attacked by men with knives and pipes.
One of the men narrowly escaped serious facial injuries when he awoke to a knife “tearing” through his tent. Also in mid-July, a large group of men, including some wearing masks and one carrying a hurl, approached asylum seekers camping on the banks of the Royal Canal, shouting abuse and threatening violence.
A post on X from May of this year, featuring a screenshot of a man’s Tinder profile and a second, grainer image of the same man, says that a Newtownmountkennedy Tinder user got “the shock of her life” when she saw the account and calls on users to share the man’s image “EVERYWHERE”.
The post notes that convicted murderer Yousef Palani, who killed two gay men in Sligo in 2022, also used an online dating app to “trap” his victims. The man in the photo “might well be a good man” but women “have a right” to know he is an asylum seeker living in the local emergency accommodation centre, says the writer of post, before adding: “It’s best to be safe rather than sorry.”
On Monday of this week, Dublin city councillor Gavin Pepper posted a video of himself beside tents on Dublin’s Grand Canal, stating that “migration and crime go hand in hand” and that “women, children and the working class people” were being “put in danger” by the presence of migrants and tents. The tents which appear in the video were cleared by gardaí on Thursday morning.
Mr Pepper regularly calls for “mass deportations” in his posts and uses the increasingly popular slogan “Ireland is full”. He did not respond to an Irish Times request for comment.
Many volunteers supporting asylum seekers cite the International Protection Act 2015 – which states it is unlawful to “broadcast” any information “likely to lead members of the public to identify a person as an applicant” – to An Garda Síochána when asylum seekers are filmed without consent. In some instances, gardaí respond that the act is “international law, not Irish law” or that knowledge of the law is “above our pay grade”, volunteers allege.
“Gardaí aren’t trained in how to deal with these vulnerable people,” said one volunteer. Another said she was told by a garda that a far-right agitator “had the right” to film asylum seekers without their consent “because they’re in a public place”.
A Garda spokesman acknowledged the International Protection Act 2015 “provides for the protection” of IP applicants but said their role was “primarily investigative”. “It is ultimately solely for the courts to determine whether any action is a breach of legislation”, he said.
Labour Party leader TD Ivana Bacik, who has engaged with volunteer groups working in the local Dublin Bay South constituency, expressed concern that gardaí were not “operating the law” when people were filmed without consent, “especially if pictures are posted with malign intent”.
“It’s a very basic legal requirement that if someone is going through the international protection system, their identity should remain confidential. That’s their right.”
Irish Refugee Council director Nick Henderson said the 2015 Act clearly states “it is a criminal offence to film an asylum seeker and broadcast it”. “This shouldn’t be a surprise to gardaí, and if it is, there needs to be circulation and training on this,” said Mr Henderson.
Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central Gary Gannon says those posting hateful, anti-immigrant content are following “the very clear playbook that we’re seeing in the UK”. Some were now “profiting from this incitement” by requesting donations alongside their videos, said Mr Gannon, adding that threats of violence from these groups towards politicians were also now common.
“This a form of domestic terrorism – terrorising people who are seeking asylum or those who wish to support them.”
The Government’s practice of dispatching gardaí to move asylum-seeker campsites in Dublin on an almost nightly basis was also “putting these men in more danger, because they end up camping in unsuitable places”, said a volunteer also working in south Dublin.
“How this is being framed – giving men a sleeping bag, telling them to go camp, but then clearing the camps – suggests the men are doing something wrong. But they have no choice. The Government is creating this hostile environment where this hate is being amplified.”
More than 2,500 asylum-seeking men are currently homeless, up from 2,400 one month ago.
Volunteers themselves are also increasingly concerned for their own safety. One female volunteer, who has previously spoken publicly about her work, says she no longer feels “safe to put my name in the national media that we’re helping refugees”. Others felt their work now puts their safety “at huge risk” and one female volunteer told The Irish Times her partner had repeatedly asked her to stop because “he’s worried about far-right attacks”.
All volunteers interviewed for this article requested that their identity be protected because they have also been threatened with violence online and in person.
Asked to comment on the issues raised in this report, the Garda spokesman said the force was “aware of significant and consistent volumes of speculation, misinformation, disinformation and falsehoods in circulation, particularly in relation to International Protection applicants and public safety”, he said.
Any threat to use or perpetrate violence or intimidation was considered “a matter of serious concern and could potentially be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution in respect of such matters”, he said.
However, the force “has not recorded any significant increase in criminal activity or public order issues directly caused by International Protection applicants, at any location, at this time”.
It was not the “sole responsibility or role” of gardaí to request that social media companies remove “threatening or violent material” from their platforms and any person affected by such material should, in the first instance, send a removal request directly to the hosting site, he said.
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