OVER 100 Romanians have taken refuge in a church hall in south Belfast following a spate of racist attacks off the Lisburn Road area of the city.
A five-day-old girl was among the 115 Romanians who took shelter in the hall of the Protestant City Church off the Lisburn Road last night.
Alliance South Belfast Assembly member Anna Lo said the families were “absolutely petrified” by the continuing attacks on them. She said at various times mobs of over 20 men, some of them shouting racist abuse and making Nazi salutes, had attacked the families during the past week.
Over four days last week there were a series of attacks on the homes of Romanian families living at Belgravia Avenue and Wellesley Avenue. Copies of Mein Kampf were also put through some of the letter boxes of the houses, according to local sources.
On Monday night a number of missiles were fired at people who demonstrated in support of the targeted families. A number of youths made Nazi salutes and fired bottles at those involved in the anti-racist protest. The youths were chased by some of those involved in the demonstration.
A number of the families had congregated for safety in the houses but the situation became so serious that they decided to take refuge in the church hall last night, explained Ms Lo.
The MLA explained that some local residents had offered to take shifts to try to guard the families against further attack but the families “just didn’t feel safe” and took up the offer of refuge from the City Church.
“It is appalling that people feel they are not safe in their own homes,” said Ms Lo.
She said the goodwill of those who have provided shelter and support for the families must not overshadow the actions of a small number of racist thugs.
“There needs to be a stronger strategy put in place to protect people from hate crimes. Lessons must be learned from the sad events of the past few days.” A meeting has been organised for today involving local politicians, the PSNI and representative groups for the Romanians.
Earlier yesterday, despite political and local criticism that police were not doing enough to protect the Romanians, PSNI chief insp Robert Murdie said patrols were increased in the area to try to deal with the problem. In addition police were examining video footage to see if they could determine who was involved.
While there were claims that British racist groups such as Combat 18 were involved, chief Insp Murdie said there was no evidence of an orchestrated campaign against the families.
“They are not organised gangs,” he said.
