THE SIGHT of more than 100 Romanians, many clutching suitcases, plastic and cloth sacks, clothing, sleeping bags, some pushing buggies as they filed into the Ozone Centre in Belfast yesterday morning conjured up a rather chilling image from a dark European past, writes GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor
They had disembarked with their belongings from two buses which had travelled the short distance from the City Church hall close to the city centre in which they had stayed overnight.
The children – the youngest a baby just six days old – were kept close to their parents as they made their way into the building.
They were entering nothing worse than a south Belfast tennis arena but nonetheless the fact that they were victims of modern racism and hatred carried a bleak resonance in a society trying to emerge from its own dark past.
The Roma people have been a feature of Belfast city life in the past two years. Many of them sell the Belfast Telegraph on the streets. Other are involved in car washing, some sell the Big Issues, others simply beg.
Belfast lord mayor Naomi Long agreed there was something “medieval” in 115 or so Romanians, most or all of them from the Roma community, feeling compelled to take sanctuary, first in a church hall and then in this sports arena.
There was a large media presence to flash the story all over Britain, Ireland, Europe and the world. Politicians and local people spoke of the shame this would bring on Northern Ireland.
But there was also generosity amid the disgrace. Local residents in south Belfast had rallied behind the 20 families who were subjected to a spate of attacks in their homes in Wellesley Avenue and Belgravia Avenue since yesterday week.
Food, beverages and other necessities were brought to the centre for the families, along with eggs, bread, milk, cans, fruit, Pampers and baby wipes.
The clergy and parishioners of the City Church had ensured the families had a refuge when they finally broke under racist pressure late on Tuesday night.
The previous night, local people demonstrated in support of the Romanians and were subjected to Nazi slogans and salutes, as well as a hail of missiles, for their expression of solidarity.
The attacks began last Wednesday, apparently spontaneously without any motivation apart from racism, and continued in the following days.
A car was damaged, windows were broken, one child in a cot had a lucky escape when a large stone or rock landed close to her head, and doors were pushed in.
Alliance Assembly member Anna Lo said some of those involved in the attacks made reference to the British racist group, Combat 18. She said there was a case of “a man waving a gun over his head, telling them to get out or they are going to be shot”.
There were also local reports of extracts from Hitler’s Mein Kampf being pushed through the letter-boxes of those targeted.
Local residents from off the Lisburn area and in the nearby loyalist Village area, from where the attacks emanated, offered to guard the families at night. But, by Tuesday night, the families had had enough: they took the sanctuary offered.
The overwhelming majority of the families did not speak English, so Maria Fechete, who has made an effort to learn the language in recent months, was delegated to speak on their behalf.
The families “want to go home” to Romania, she said. “I haven’t slept in a week,” she added. She did not understand why they were attacked. She said the gangs screamed “very rude things, which I can’t say because I don’t want to be rude the same”. The pressure was constant for over a week, she added.
At the reception of the Ozone Centre, Raymond and Valerie Russell were in tears. They had come from the east of the city to see whether their Romanian friends were safe. Some of the Romanians attended their Orangefield Presbyterian Church in east Belfast and the retired couple had befriended one of the families, who regularly visited them.
“They are just such lovely people. They give us little presents, once a clock with the Lord’s Prayer on it. It’s terrible that this should happen, it’s very sad,” said Raymond Russell.
He said the family told him they came to Northern Ireland out of desperation because there was no work in Romania. He wondered whether they were having second thoughts about their decision.
The situation remained unresolved last night, although there was progress.
At teatime, the families filed out of the Ozone Centre with their belongings to be bussed again, this time to temporary housing provided by Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie. Most still said they wanted to return to Romania. Others were considering that they might stay.