Racism a problem in Ireland, says US human rights report

Ken Foxe, Public Affairs Correspondent

A REPORT by the US State Department has said Ireland continues to have a significant problem with racism towards minorities and immigrants.

The 2010 Human Rights Report on Ireland said discrimination and attacks against those newly arrived and certain ethnic groups were a growing issue.

The report said: "The law prohibits discrimination based on language or social status, and the government enforced the law. However, societal discrimination and violence against immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities, including Asians, Eastern and Baltic Europeans, and Africans, continued to be a problem.

"There were racially motivated incidents involving physical violence, intimidation, graffiti and verbal slurs.

"Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) reported an increase in 'Irish Only' job advertisements, and the Economic and Social Research Institute noted that job candidates with typical Irish names were more likely to be appointed."

The report, which addresses a huge number of social problems in Ireland, also said that the travelling community were "regularly" denied their rights.

It said: "[They] faced societal discrimination and were regularly denied access to premises, goods, facilities, and services, despite applicable anti-discrimination laws."

The US State Department also identified human trafficking as a growing problem and said men, women and children had fallen victim to it in Ireland.

The report stated: "The country is a destination and, to a lesser extent, transit point for women, men, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour."

It said there also appeared to be a problem with workers being exploited by commercial firms, particularly in construction, fishing, domestic work and agriculture.

March 21, 2010

Comments

#1 Declan commented, on March 28, 2010 at 11:30 a.m.:

That the Irish are racist does not surprise me. Before there was large scale immigration the travelling community took the brunt of the racism streak. In the future there will be social repercussions from the lack of integration that will result. When I lived in Ireland in the 70s the ability to get a job often fell to who you (or your family) knew. The immigrant community (except for Asians who often provide their own business networks) will not have the links to get a job. Europeans at least will see their children integrating well. Expect to read about increasing levels of crime among other groups.

#2 David Crowley commented, on March 28, 2010 at 6:49 p.m.:

I think that the authors of this report may well have been just reading politically correct media reports oftern generated by professional immigration support lobbies. I would take with a large dose of salts claims of NGOs, whose very raison d'etre is to deal with "racism", regularly accusing all and sundry of "racism" at every opportunity and constantly promulgating nonsense about racism in Ireland. In fact, the Irish authorities and Irish people in general have been very tolerant towards foreigners in their midst, as evidenced by the large influx of economic migrants who have settled in the country and continue to avail of the generous Irish social welfare benefits funded by the Irish taxpayer without much complaint even though a large number of the beneficiaries are foreign residents.

#3 michaelcampbell commented, on March 28, 2010 at 7:18 p.m.:

If you want to see real racisism I suggest go up North and it is not the Irish part that is bad.

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