For the first time since she came to live in Northern Ireland almost a decade ago, Sipho Sibanda feels anxious about travelling to work.
Five days ago, the civil servant signed up to a private group chat for ethnic minorities too afraid to use public transport – or even private taxis – after a wave of racist violence swept the city.
“They’re worried that the taxi drivers might be racist. People who are doing night shifts in hospitals are very afraid and are calling friends and taxis that they know are being driven by ethnic minorities to take them instead,” she says.
“We set up a group chat after Saturday’s riots where people posted their addresses – which I know is unsafe – and then asked for a pickup.
“It’s Muslims, it’s black people – it’s literally everybody who has come together and said, ‘If we’re afraid, what do we do?’”
Sibanda is standing outside Parliament Buildings waving an enormous red trade union flag, along with hundreds of people at a rally to oppose attacks on migrant communities.
The Zimbabwean refugee, who moved to Belfast with her young son nine years ago, became involved in activist work and has a large network of friends.
“There is very much a feeling of nervousness. We are worried about going into work and then there is the anxiety because you don’t know who’s actually with you and who is against you – even among your colleagues.
“You’ve white colleagues who you’ve been working with for a long time but at the same time, if they’re not talking about it, you don’t know what their views are. This is where Northern Ireland is at.”
During the rally, she makes a call to a friend working as a nurse in a Belfast hospital, who speaks of her fears.
The Belfast health trust – the North’s largest NHS trust – confirmed earlier this week that it was aware of 10 overseas nurses who were considering leaving their jobs in the wake of the disorder.
A west African nurse, who works shifts at emergency departments and cancer wards at the city’s two biggest hospitals, says he feels unsafe and now changes direction when he sees “young lads” walking towards him in the street.
“Never before would I have done this but I switched sides today. I try to change sides so I don’t bump into anyone,” says the 48-year-old man from Gambia.
He worked night shifts last weekend and only became aware of the disorder when he went to buy food from his favourite ethnic food store on Tuesday morning – to find it burnt to the ground.
The Sham Supermarket on the Donegall Road in south Belfast was destroyed in an arson attack on Sunday night before being set alight again on Monday.
“I had no clue of what was going on, in the hospital your focus is on how your patients are going to survive so you don’t even think about the outside world. I also don’t have access to a TV,” says the man, who is too nervous to give his name.
Seeing the debris scattered across the road, the experienced health professional says he is unsure about continuing to work in Northern Ireland.
“It is very, very sad and it would make me afraid. I just came to buy something here and look at this place. I tell all my friends how nice Belfast is and that it’s one of the friendliest places.
“But I’m scared to live here now – you could get attacked at any time.”
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