New campaign seeks to drive out racism from Ireland

The Immigrant Council of Ireland has seen an 11% increase in the number of racist incidents which have been reported to it with physical violence involved in 13% of the incidents.

The council has confirmed the 240 reports it received throughout 2015 were up from 217 a year earlier.

While verbal harassment (99 instances) and discrimination (68 instances) were the most common form of racism, physical violence occurred in 37 of the cases and threats of physical violence and intimidation were encountered in 31.

A breakdown of the victims showed members of the Muslim community accounted for 40%, or 97 of the cases, while one in three victims, or 80 instances, identify themselves as African.

The majority of racist incidents reported to the Immigrant Council last year took place in the workplace (31%), followed by on public transport (20%) and in homes and local communities (16%).

The council yesterday joined forces with the National Transport Authority and transport and taxi companies to launch a campaign encouraging people to report racism.

That campaign will see adverts running at more than 2,000 sites across the transport network including buses, trains, and trams throughout the country, and at the busiest commuter stations.

“The ads focus on a core message of celebrating diversity, highlighting that — as a diverse nation — our similarities far outweigh our differences,” the council said. The ads also encourage anyone who witnesses racism to report it by contacting [e-mail]

Fantastic launch today-annual #StopRacism campaign w @TFIupdates +partners. Report to [e-mail] pic.twitter.com/XvFJkmTQoQ

— Immigrant Council.ie (@immigrationIRL) August 9, 2016

Immigrant Council chief executive, Brian Killoran, said racist incidents were under-reported, which made it difficult to assess and tackle racism where it occurred.

“The focus of our work with the National Transport Authority and our partners in public transport is to encourage people who witness racism to come forward, report it and receive support to address the issue. This is the fourth year of our anti-racism campaign on transport networks and, each year, we’ve seen an increase in the numbers of people challenging and reporting racism as a result.”

Mr Killoran said it was noticeable that 20% of incidents reported in 2015 occurred on public transport.

“While public transport in Ireland is safe and inclusive, like all public spaces it is not immune to negative behaviours of this nature.”

Anne Graham, the National Transport Authority chief executive, said: “The #StopRacism campaign is the single biggest anti-racism campaign delivered in Ireland each year, and is the largest public transport anti-racism campaign of its kind in Europe. It is contributing to increased public awareness of how to report — and ultimately tackle — incidents of racism. Anyone who reports a racist incident by contacting the Immigrant Council can be assured that reports will be taken seriously and that victims will be offered support.”

Last year the commission recorded 49 racist incidents on public transport, most in relation to passengers abusing transport staff. Physical violence was relatively common, with victims spat at or having objects thrown at them. Some reported that they were punched or kicked.

Passengers also reported being victimised by fellow passengers. There were also two incidents which involved the victims suffering mistreatment from the staff of transport providers.