Accommodation found for victims of racist attacks

17 June 2009 | By Clara Story

More than 100 Romanians who were apparently hounded from their Belfast homes by racists have been re-housed in temporary social housing.

Social development minister Margaret Ritchie said the 20 families, who were staying in the safety of the Ozone Centre sports complex in south Belfast on Wednesday, would be rehoused in Housing Executive homelessness accommodation ‘until a permanent solution is found’.

The Romanians said they were forced to leave their homes on Tuesday evening, and took refuge in a church hall before moving to the leisure centre the next day.

They were not in Housing Executive homes prior to the incident but it is unclear if they were in other social housing or private rental property.

‘My main concern is ensuring everyone has a roof over their heads tonight. I empathise with the plight and trauma these families are experiencing and I believe it is our duty to help them,’ Ms Ritchie said.

She added that most Northern Irish people deplore such racism and the government wanted to ‘promote a shared future for everyone’ in the region.

‘I utterly condemn this spate of racist attacks on these Romanian families. Their plight has been projected all over the world for everyone to see and it is totally unacceptable in this day and age,’ she added.

Readers' comments (7)

Plain Speak | 17/06/2009 5:38 pm
Would the perpetrators be identified and brought to justice. Where was the Police at this time - could we have their comments to the story?
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beau | 18/06/2009 9:38 am
Without excusing the perpetrators this is an excellent (sic) example of planning for sustainable communities in one of the most 'battle hardened' environments.
By all means house the Romanians but 100 in the middle of Belfast... Whose idea was that???
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Joe Halewood | 18/06/2009 11:20 am
Beau - Your underlying opinions of Belfast shine through as an example of outdated prejudice. This type of incident could happen anywhere in the UK and has.
I agree with your point on sustainable community planning and recall that one council accepted hundreds of Bosnians back in late 90s fleeing the war there. Unfortunately, the council did not realise they had a large Croat community since just after WWII and re-housed them within 500 yards of each other.!! Quite how the council did not know of the large Croat community that had been thre for 50 years is beyond belief.

I do applaud the NI communities for being so open and making much media awareness of this issue. It shows the kind of openness and honesty needed to solve the issue quickly.

Im not from Belfast or Northern Ireland / North of Ireland but do know they have far better strength of community there than most other places in the UK. To insinuate that the 'troubles' still exist and that Belfast is not fit to accommodate other ethnicities is an outrageous slur and needs retraction.
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| 19/06/2009 1:00 am
There is a lot more to this story than is being reported. There is no smoke without fire, as the saying goes. Check out what Romanian English language sources are saying:

http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_news-5836658-the-romanian-gypsies-attacked-the-neo-nazis-belfast-are-currently-social-care-gordon-brown-condemns-the-violence.htm

"Romanian from Belfast: "Even if the Northern Ireland neo-Nazi gesture is blameable, our Gypsies have brought this to themselves!"

HotNews.ro contacted a Romanian community representative in Belfast, who knows in greater detail the aspects that lead to the serious conflicts between the young neo-Nazi groups from Northern Ireland capital and the Romanian Gypsies.

Paul T. is 32 and has been living for 8 years in Belfast, together with his wife. "When we got here in 2001, there have been some problems the Romanian Gypsies created. But in he last 2-3 years, since there is no need for visas and we joined the EU, their number grew considerably. There's no harm in this, but they were remarked for begging, breaking into cash machines and other similar activities", Paul says."

This group were not "Romanians" per se, as can be seen from the report above. They were Roma Gypsies. There is a difference and that difference is mainly due to behaviour not nationality. It was not that the locals had a problem with Romanians purely on the basis that they were Romanian. It was the behaviour of this group of Roma which, as the Romanian commentator above duely noted, did not exactly fit in with the behaviour of everybody else, local or otherwise.

There are similar problems happening in Germany, see also:

http://english.hotnews.ro/stiri-top_news-5829643-berlin-bought-its-peace-110-romanian-gypsies-will-receive-27-000-euros-return-romania.htm
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Joe Halewood | 19/06/2009 2:15 pm
I fundamentally disagree with ILAGcomments here.

Roma is an ethnicity and race the same as Romanian or Outer Mongolian. As such this is an attack on a national identity and ethnic identity. To clarify, are the homes of indigent Irish people that beg or raid ATM machines attacked? Of course not.

To try and justify or mitigate the attacks in this way is inherently racist and bigotted. Violence begets violence as the saying goes and surely something that NI has had more of than any other area of the UK and learned doesnt solve anything.

Comments such as no smoke without fire here try to justify vigilante or revenge criminality and violence. Is this what ILAG believes to be acceptable?
Is the same principle to say attack the homes of white anglo-saxon british yobs who beg or steal or commit street robbery from ATMs? It is exactly the same principle. Is this what you are justifying or promoting ILAG? Or is it only acceptable if they are non-white?
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| 20/06/2009 8:52 pm
A typical knee jerk lefty response. The locals are all bad and the "poor" gypsies are all good and did nothing whatsoever to merit getting kicked out. It is precisely this attitude, and the open door immigration policy of this Government, that explains why ordinary working class folk have deserted Labour in droves and pushed them towards the extremist parties. The article from the Romanian press quoted makes plain that it was the BEHAVIOUR of these Roma that angered the locals not the fact that they happened to come from Romania. As the Romanian who had been settled there for 8 years without trouble makes plain. You just choose to ignore this, determined as you are to blame the white working class incumbent population. Life is so simple in lefty world isn't it?
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The.Dark.One | 24/06/2009 11:07 am
Putting the other issues to one side for a moment, one has to ask: How have they been placed into temporary accommodation when they are probably (and I can't say for definite without knowing the full facts) not eligible for assistance under the homelessness legislation? Putting up 100+ people who are probably not eligible for assistance (regardless of being homeless or not) should be frowned on. When there is legislation in place which governs who can get help, this shouldn't be ignored just so they can be seen to be helping someone. What about the people who are eligible who may need that accommodation?
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