A Palestinian asylum seeker, who was among a group of men allegedly assaulted with hammers, knives and sticks in Finglas last week, says he is “scared” to be on the streets of Dublin.
Rafi, who came to Ireland seeking international protection in June, is one of 10 asylum seekers who say they were “harassed”, “beaten” and “threatened with death” by another group of men near the Charlestown Shopping Centre.
Gardaí confirmed they were investigating “an alleged assault” that took place at about 5.30pm on Friday, August 2nd on Melville Road, Finglas. Two men were treated at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown for “non-life threatening injuries”, said a Garda spokesman.
It is understood the incident is under active investigation and may be treated as a hate crime.
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Speaking on behalf of the group of asylum seekers, Rafi said they were approached by young men on bikes in Lanesborough Park on Friday afternoon who threatened them.
Four of the asylum seekers, including Rafi, said they then boarded a bus but disembarked and returned to the area when they received a message that others in the group had been attacked.
“They called us 10 minutes after we left and said there are lots of people here trying to attack us with knives, hammers and sticks,” he told The Irish Times. “When we got back we found one with a broken leg, who had been hit with hammers and big sticks. Another one, his head was bleeding a lot. He’s out of hospital now but he’s still not good.”
Rafi also alleges a man in a car pulled in beside the injured men and threatened to kill them if they did not “go back to Palestine”.
“To be honest, I was scared; this is so much for us,” Rafi said. “We came all the way from Palestine because of the war, we came here to feel peace, we want peace. But when we came here we’ve found this.”
A medical discharge letter from the Mater hospital, dated August 3rd, confirms one of the men was “hit with a hammer” on his shoulder and “punched in the chest”. An image shared by the group also shows a man with a gash on his head and blood streaming down his neck.
Rafi says he contacted gardaí last week after a photograph of him and seven others was posted on social media platform X with the hashtag “MakeIrelandIrishAgain” and alleging that Finglas village “is starting to look more like Downtown Damascus each week”.
“We told the Garda we are not safe when this happened,” said Rafi. “We are still not safe, anything will happen, maybe we will die.”
Two videos, posted on X and TikTok last Friday, show asylum-seeking men and their tents in the Charlestown park and tell locals to be “very vigilant with the kids” because “no one knows who these migrants are, and what they’re capable of”.
Another man from the group of asylum seekers said their “lives are now in danger because every time we walk in the street we are subjected to bullying, insults and cursing”.
The men, who have returned to the city centre, said they are sleeping rough and pitching tents late at night before leaving at dawn to avoid being moved on by gardaí.
This pattern of men camping and being moved on has continued since March when the Government first cleared tents that appeared around Mount Street Lower outside the International Protection Office.
Volunteers supporting rough sleeping asylum seekers have criticised the Government for continuing to provide tents, through State-funded service providers, to newly arrived male asylum seekers, while simultaneously stating it is illegal to camp in the city.
A spokesman for the Department of Integration said “regular outreach” is carried out among international protection applicants who are rough sleeping, a “vulnerability triage system” is in place for all applicants and that offers of accommodation are made “as soon as they become available”.
“An Garda Síochána is responsible for operational policing matters, and where criminal acts have occurred, the Department is precluded from commenting or providing detailed information, as it may prejudice any consequent investigations or court cases,” said the spokesman.
Some 2,370 male asylum seekers are currently awaiting an offer of accommodation, down from 2,406 two weeks ago.
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