99 reports of racist incidents to Immigrant Council last year

Immigrant Council of Ireland CEO Brian Killoran said people can become targets for abuse in their own communities. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) helped 99 people last year who reported a racist incident, more than 40% of which either happened at home or on the street.

The figure is contained in the ICI's annual impact report, which showed the number of racist incidents reported to it rose from 57 in 2020, and included incidents in the workplace (14% of reports) and accessing public services (10%).

However, Immigrant Council CEO Brian Killoran, said the 22% of incidents which took place at someone's home could involve serious episodes, such as graffiti and the throwing of eggs. 

It could be people targeted in their home by people in their community, it has been an issue over the years, harassment at their home. It could be graffiti, eggs thrown, repeated instances from a particular neighbour.

Mr Killoran said the 99 incidents reported to the ICI were typically from people who wanted to address what happened, as opposed to the larger number of incidents recorded by the Irish Network Against Racism
(INAR), with which the ICI collaborates, in which many people say they do not make a report to anyone else about what happened to them, including to gardaí.

"It is a frustration from people reporting over the years and for us as an organisation, that it can seem like there are no remedies, no clear answer to how you can address it," he said.

Mr Killoran said expected legislation from Government and the impending publication of the National Action Plan against Racism would help in that regard. He added that the current situation, even that experienced by ICI staff, showed it was an area that needed tackling, and an area where he said Ireland was "behind the curve". 

Just 4% of the 99 incidents involved social media, but Mr Killoran said ICI staff regularly received racist abuse online.

"To be quite honest so much of it happens if you were to report all, of it you would never do anything else," he said. 

Overall the ICI dealt with 3,657 helpline queries last year, down from the year before, with residence issues, family reunification, and citizenship the main reasons for the contacts.