'Fractured Face, Eggs Thrown...': Indians Horrified By Racist Attacks in Ireland

Indians in Ireland told The Quint about the horrors they faced at the hands of Irish teens, some as young as 11.

Members of the Indian community in Dublin holding a protest against the rise in racist crimes by teenagers. 

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint) 

"I was minding my own business, walking down a road I traverse everyday, when 5-6 teenagers crept up on me from behind and beat me up for no rhyme or reason. I'm left with a broken cheekbone and bandages all over my face."

"I was waiting for a bus in Tallaght Square when a young man came right up to my face. I think he was high on something. Without any provocation he just yelled, 'You fu**ing people are everywhere'."

"I was in the car with my wife and seven-month-old daughter, going out for dinner yesterday. At a red light, a group of Irish teenagers flung a rock at my car using a slingshot. Thankfully it only hit the door and not the window, or else it would've been drastic."

These are just a few racist incidents that Indians in Ireland told The Quint they faced in the last few months—almost all of them claiming that the perpetrators were white teenagers acting with absolute impunity.

The Indian community—numbering over 80,000—has been on guard like never before amid a drastic rise in racist attacks specifically targeting them across Ireland, a country which has long been considered a welcoming and safe destination for immigrants. Almost every day over the last few weeks, there have been reports of Indians being either physically or verbally assaulted.

And these are just the reported cases: of those who either took to social media to describe the horrors that they faced or filed a complaint with the police.

'They Fractured My Face... No Action By Police Yet'

Santosh Yadav, a data scientist who came to Ireland around four years ago, became a recent victim of one such assault.

At around 11 pm on 27 July he was walking down a street near his home in Dublin with a friend when out of nowhere, a group of teenagers crept up on him from behind, snatched his glasses, and started landing blows on him.

"I couldn't see their faces... I don't even remember how many of them there were exactly," Yadav tells The Quint with great difficulty, his lips quivering with pain because of the bruises on his face.

While his friend tried to protect him and screamed for help, nobody came. By the time the group of teenagers was done with him, Yadav was left with injuries on his nose, ears, legs, and a fracture on his face.

While trying to stop the bleeding, his friend called the Garda Síochána (Ireland's police force).

"The Garda sent an ambulance, but it took close to two hours to reach. I was then transported to a hospital where the doctors conducted a CT scan of my face, head, and chest. The scan revealed a broken cheekbone," he says.

Yadav is now at home, having taken official leave from work. While he has filed a case with the Garda, he says that they are yet to get back to him, even two weeks after the crime took place.

"In my complaint I even told them that there are cameras in the area where I was walking, and maybe that can help nab the culprits. But I haven't heard from them," he says.

Following the attack, Yadav says that he has been getting repeated calls from his family back home, asking him to leave Ireland for good and come back to India.

"I haven't faced anything of this sort in my four years here. These incidents have started taking place only a few months ago," he says. "Nowadays if you walk in Dublin regularly, you'll definitely face these issues. Almost all Indians are facing abuse or provocation in some or the other form."

'As a Woman I Used to Feel Completely Safe, But Now...'

It's not just extreme physical assaults that have hampered the lives of Indians in Ireland. Many from the community claim to have been victims of different forms of harassment over the last few months, making day-to-day life in the country extremely arduous.

"I remember being able to walk anywhere alone in Dublin, sometimes even for 10-15 km in any random direction without a care. As a woman I felt extremely safe. Now, there has been a drastic shift," says Anjali Agarwal*, an architect who has been living in the capital's Rathfarnham area for the last five years with her husband.

Agarwal, 35, says that while she has faced a number of racist incidents in the country, a horrific experience a few days ago shook her to the core.

"At around 6:30 pm on 17 July, a group of teenagers stopped outside my patio. One of them, who appeared to be the eldest, took his pants down and exposed his genitals to me," Agarwal tells The Quint. "Then they began verbally abusing me using racial slurs and made obscene gestures with their hands."

However, that wasn't the end of it. Agarwal says that the same group returned around 15 minutes later and threw an egg at her patio's window.

"After the incident I lodged a complaint with the local security guard. However, upon hearing that teenagers were the perpetrators, he said he couldn't do anything as there have been cases of kids bring their parents who, instead of correcting their children, threaten the security personnel. He also said that he was afraid of the ramifications of reporting this incident being a person of colour himself, like getting attacked by teenagers when he's off duty."

Anjali Agarwal

Sanchi Tayal, another Indian-origin resident of Dublin who works at a consultancy firm, says that she was harassed by kids as young as 11 years old a few days ago when she went to the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre with her sisters who were visiting from India.

Jaiswal and her siblings, one of whom is pregnant, were walking through the mall when they were stopped by six children, aged between 11 and 15.

"They approached us with water balloons and said, 'Ladies, do you want to have some fun?'" Jaiswal says. "One of my sisters was going to respond, but I told her not to engage because I knew they would likely throw the water balloons at us."

Tayal says that the kids couldn't seem to care less that her sister was pregnant, and threw the balloons anyway. However, having walked away quickly, none of the balloons hit them.

"We reported the incident to the mall security team. While they tried to send the kids away, none of them took the warning seriously," she says.

What Explains the Rise in Racist Incidents Across Ireland? 

Several opinions have been exchanged on why there has been a rise in racist attacks against Indians of late. While the Irish government has publicly condemned these attacks, with the Foreign Ministry stating that such incidents cause "great damage" to the country's reputation, many suggest that strong laws against crimes perpetrated by teenagers is the need of the hour.

In Ireland, the 'age of criminal responsibility' is 12, which means that children aged 11 and below cannot be charged with a crime, unless they have been accused of serious offences like murder or rape. Even for those aged between 12 and 17, the system emphasises rehabilitation measures to keep them out of the adult criminal justice system.

"The police here doesn't have as much power as the police may have in India. They have to operate within certain boundaries, and they can't take action against teenagers because that's a boundary which has been specified," says Devesh Kumar*, who works as a product lead at a company in Dublin.

Kumar, a prominent and vocal voice in the Indian community in Ireland, says that he considers himself lucky to have escaped physical assaults so far. However, he, too, has had a number of racially charged encounters.

"There have been times when teenagers have ganged up on me, yelled expletives and tried to steal my bike. Another time, just recently, some teenagers deliberately shot a football at my wife. Luckily I was able to obstruct the ball or else it would've hit her," he tells The Quint

Kumar is one of the several Indians who have become more active on social media of late in a bid to spread awareness about the various attacks taking place against immigrant communities. He says that the topmost priority is for the Irish government to take steps to redress this uptick in crimes by teenagers by enacting stricter laws.

"There need to be laws against teenage crimes. We understand that they're just kids and they have a future ahead of them, but so does the person whom they're attacking. The person they're attacking has a family, has children. If something happens to him, if he loses his job because of a disability, who will take care of his dependents?" he says.

Kumar further adds that members of the Indian community, due to constant harassment by teenagers, have started taking several steps out of the fear that they might be attacked at any given time.

"Just as a reflex, when you see a group of teenagers and you're walking on the same side of the road, you cross the road and walk on the other side. And then you cross back after you pass them. Also, even if teenagers try to harm you, you are not advised to attack them back because then they have the power to press charges and the whole thing can be spun against you. But when it comes to them, there are no real laws against teenagers."

Devesh Kumar

Kumar says that yet another complication for Indians and other immigrant communities to fight against these crimes is that they are on a range of visas, and wouldn't want to hamper their stay in the country. Hence, a lot of them are afraid of speaking out regarding their experiences due to fears of deportation or losing their jobs.

"If you are on a work visa, you don't want any sort of investigation against you as it could influence your entire life. You have a family here, maybe you have a child studying in a school. If your visa is cancelled, if your employer says that we can't work with you anymore, we're letting you go, what happens to the life that you're trying to build here? It all amounts to nothing," he says.

Meanwhile, the Indian community in Ireland has been taking several measures to protect themselves amid the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment. For instance, several SOS channels have been created through which any attack can be reported instantly and help can arrive on a timely basis. Also, several Indians in Ireland told The Quint that if they go for walks in the evening, they avoid going alone and take at least 2-3 people along with them.

Furthermore, a number of WhatsApp groups have been created for the speedy dissemination of information and coordination between community members. Indians have also been taking out silent demonstrations in Dublin and other parts of Ireland to protest against the violent incidents.

The Rise of Ireland's Far-Right

The rise of such racist crimes coincides with a concomitant and steady rise of the right-wing in Ireland. While electorally the far-right remains a marginal political force in the country, their popularity has been on a slow ascent in the last few years, with followers of right-wing ideologues and social media pages witnessing an uptick in numbers.

There has also been an increase in anti-immigrant rallies across the country, with photos and videos from such events being shared widely across social media.

A video from a recent rally, for instance, purportedly showed a man in a playground holding the Irish flag, saying that there are immigrants arriving in the country who are not fit to work, but are still buying property.

"They’re never going to integrate either. Islam should never be allowed into a Christian country," he can purportedly be heard saying amid cheers from the crowd.

Indians state that the rise in racist crimes is heavily influenced by the rise of Ireland's far-right political parties and groups which vehemently spread propaganda regarding immigrant communities.

"The far-right creates certain narratives against immigrants and nobody bothers to investigate the truth. Kids get influenced by these narratives and they feel like they are running some sort of rebellion for the country, and they feel very patriotic while carrying out these attacks. Also since they're just teenagers, they think they're just having a good laugh," Kumar says.

Several observers have stated that these attacks can be explained in connection with the fertile socio-economic backdrop in which Ireland finds itself. Over the last few years, the country has been facing a severe housing crisis and rising costs of living, resulting in a rise of populist sentiment that turns immigrants into scapegoats.

How Have Authorities Reacted To the Attacks?

Several prominent Irish politicians and diplomats have publicly condemned the rise in attacks against Indians.

"I absolutely condemn the shameful acts of violence on the Indian citizens in recent days," Irish Ambassador to India Kevin Kelly said in a statement to The Quint.

Kelly added that these assaults do not represent "Irish values" and have been condemned by the Irish government and by the local politicians and communities where they occurred. "The assaults are being thoroughly investigated by Irish authorities who are working to bring the perpetrators of this violence to justice."

Similarly, the Garda Síochána, Ireland's police force, stated that it is investigating a number of attacks against the Indian community in Ireland and is in touch with the injured parties.

"Each of these individual incidents is being fully and thoroughly investigated," Elaine Hassett, a representative of the Garda, told The Quint. "Without commenting on any specific incident, the Garda National Diversity Unit is actively engaged with the Federation of Indian Communities in Ireland – the umbrella group for several Indian community groups across the country – to address present concerns."

Hassett also reassured those belonging to ethnic or minority backgrounds that the police force is there to keep them safe.

Representatives of the Ireland India Council (IIC) also met with the country's Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris on Monday, 11 August, and urged the classification of assaults against Indians as 'hate crimes' as well as the formation of a cross-departmental task force to check violence perpetrated by the youth.

"Today, I met representatives of Ireland’s community. I completely condemn the despicable acts of violence and racism that we have seen against some members of the Indian community in recent weeks. I want to thank the Indian community for their very positive contribution to Ireland," Harris took to X to say on Monday, 11 August.

Earlier, the Indian Embassy in Ireland had published a circular on the increasing attacks against community members and even provided an emergency contact number.

"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently," the Embassy notice reads on their website, stating that they are in touch with Irish law enforcement.

It further advises Indian citizens in Ireland to take "reasonable precautions for their personal security" and "avoid deserted areas especially in odd hours."

Meanwhile, the 'India Day' celebrations, one of Ireland's largest celebrations of Indian culture and heritage, has been postponed from Sunday, 17 August, amid the rise in violent attacks against the community.

"We feel that the situation at the moment for holding 'India Day' is not conducive," the association's co-chairman Prashant Shukla had said while speaking to reporters following his meeting with Deputy PM Harris on Monday.

(*Names changed on request)