Indian student had rope put around his neck in racially motivated Cork City attack
The incident, which has been reported to gardaí, happened on St Patrick's Street in the early evening of Saturday. File Picture.
An Indian student had a rope put around his neck in a racially motivated attack in Cork city in recent days.
The shocking incident and others like it are making the city a no-go area for international students, said Dr Lekha Menon Margassery, a UCC alumna who is president of the university's Indian Alumni Community.
This latest incident happened early on Saturday evening and involved the student being approached from behind by a man who put a length of rope around his neck in an attempt to choke him.
Luckily, the student, who wishes to remain anonymous, was able to free himself and managed to take a picture of his attacker when he was a safe distance away.
The incident, which occurred on Patrick's Street, was reported to gardaí who told the that enquiries are ongoing.
The distressed student also contacted Dr Margassery for support.
Dr Margassery said that the victim, who only arrived in Cork to complete his Masters in recent weeks, is now afraid to go outside aside from attending classes.
He is looking for part-time work but is now hoping to find something on-campus because he does not feel safe frequenting other parts of the city.
Dr Margassery said that he was contacted by another student who was heading to Paul Street Shopping Centre - also on Saturday - with his partner when he was subject to a similar attack involving a rope put around his neck.
When he freed himself and was standing in shock, he said the individual and those with him stood and laughed at him.
In her volunteer role in the alumni community, Dr Margassery said that she had warned incoming students that there was a chance they could fall victim to abuse or assaults while living in the city. She felt compelled to do this as students and graduates have recently reported to him incidents of verbal abuse and intimidation in the city.
However, Dr Margassery, who has been living in Cork since 2008, said she was shocked to hear of the attacks as she has always found the city and its people to be friendly and welcoming.
"I don't know what has gone wrong," she said, adding that she would hate to see students deterred from coming to study in Ireland.
"What if next year people think, 'Ok well we are having incidents like this, why should I go to that place?'"
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that while she cannot comment on specific incidents, she is confident that those responsible will be brought to justice.
"The minister is conscious of the harm that such incidents can cause to community safety. Violence and threatening behaviour is utterly unacceptable," she said in a statement.
Ms McEntee said the Government is committed to building safer communities and strengthening An Garda Síochána is at the core of that.
Dr Margassery called for greater Garda patrols and visibility to offer reassurance to people that it is safe to visit the city.
This has been echoed by Labour councillor and director of the Irish Council for International Students, Laura Harmon.
Ms Harmon will be raising the issue at next week's Cork City Council meeting and has suggested pop-up Garda stations, similar to those used in Dublin, as one possible solution.
The issue of recruitment is something Ms McEntee needs to address but An Garda Síochána also needs to look at where and when they are deploying its members.
While crime and racism are issues in every country, the worrying trend of attacks is not good for Cork and Ireland's reputation.
"We have a fantastic city and fantastic people and this minority of people should not be allowed to taint that," Ms Harmon said.
Meanwhile, following a spate of violent incidents linked to gang feuds, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that while he has concerns about the city centre, he think there needs to be some perspective.
"We can walk about the northside of Cork - or any part of Cork for that matter," he said in response to the city being called an unsafe place.
Following a number of "reprehensible" incidents last week, Mr Martin said there is a need to re-examine safety and policing in the streets.
"We need more Gardaí and, thankfully, recruitment is up. There were over 6,000 applications this year but for a number of years we were at a standstill situation," he said, noting the impact the covid-19 pandemic had.
However, Cork needs to get a better share in the number of Gardaí coming out of Templemore, Mr Martin said.
Often statistics are "thrown around" in terms of the number of crimes committed, he said, but what is important is people's perception of safety and right now people are concerned.
The Tánaiste said that he has been hearing reports from young people - especially young women - that at night, they do not feel as comfortable as they once did walking the city.
"That is a reality of modern living, it's a reality of modern urban life but we have to get to grips with it in terms of policing and in terms of making our streets safe again," he said.
