Filipinos targeted in race attack

Two Filipino couples were today considering leaving their home in Northern Ireland after it was attacked for the second time in a week.

Police were investigating a racial motive for the attack which occurred in the Killicomaine area of Portadown at around 1.55am when windows were smashed.

Last Thursday a boulder was thrown through the living room window of the house in Granville Street as well as bricks and potted plants.

The women, who both work as nurses at Craigavon Hospital, said people had been pleasant to them and they were puzzled by the attacks.

“We are not doing any harm to the Irish people, even here in Killicomaine,” one of them said.

She added that they were considering moving out.

The incident was condemned by the local MP, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, as well as Sinn Féin Assembly member John O’Dowd and the nationalist SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly.

Speaking from Westminster, Mr Trimble said the rise in such incidents was “shameful and repugnant.

“Portadown has enjoyed relatively good relations with its ethnic minority communities over many years and has welcomed people from all cultural backgrounds.

“There are, however, some individuals in the Craigavon area and beyond who seem intent on promoting racist hate crime and propaganda, which is totally abhorrent to all right-minded people.

“Ultimately the problem needs to be addressed with an adequate policing response and I welcome moves by government to introduce legislation which will give the courts power to increase sentences for racially-motivated attacks.”

Mr O’Dowd condemned the attack and said there had been a notable rise in racist incidents in the Upper Bann constituency with Muslim families forced from their homes.

“Those of us in political leadership have a duty to stand up to those involved in racist behaviour,” he said.

“Up until now, however, some unionist politicians in the Upper Bann area have, by their use of inappropriate language, fuelled racism rather than challenge it.

“This situation must not be repeated in the future.

"We must all unite in the face of these sorts of attacks and reassure those people from ethnic minority communities that they have every right to make their home here and build a life for themselves and their families without fear of threat or attack.”

SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly said the community and political representatives had to show their collective repudiation of such attacks.

“It’s not enough for politicians to simply condemn each attack, or for the community at large to sit in muted anger,” the Upper Bann MLA said.

“As a society we need to express our shared revulsion against racism just as much as we do against sectarianism.

“All political, community and civic leaders have a clear responsibility to turn society away from the destructive forces of intolerance and towards a society that embraces all its citizens, their faiths and cultures.”