‘My kids are crying’: list of targeted addresses stokes fears across Belfast | Belfast

A.As widespread violence broke out in Belfast, a list of addresses began circulating on social media. The addresses, which are geographically widespread, spanning dozens of streets across the city, are reported to be the homes of multiple occupations (HMOs) where immigrants live.

Joseph and Solomon, both Eritrean, came to Belfast as refugees, now have leave to remain and work full-time. They lived on the same street as one of the properties on the list, but Joseph thought they owned the property. “This is for us, of course,” he said.

“I don’t know how to feel,” he said. “When something is too much, you don’t feel anything.”

Joseph, who had been working as a translator until now, felt safe in Belfast. “The majority of people out there are fine,” he said. But now he plans to leave. “I don’t know where it is, it’s somewhere safe. I plan to escape.”

Solomon, who works for a manufacturing company, said: “I couldn’t go to work because of my shift; I feel like it’s not safe.” He also plans to leave Belfast. “I don’t know where he is,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow I need to decide where it’s safe.”

When the Guardian finished talking to the men, a white woman came out of her nearby house to check that we weren’t there because of the list. He asked: “Are you a reporter or something?”

“I was horrified,” he said. “It’s really sad and I want to cry. I just wanted to check if you weren’t bothering them because they’re so nice.”

Paul Doherty runs a community solidarity center in south Belfast. He was at the center Wednesday night when a car pulled up outside. “She was a mother and she was crying hysterically,” he said.

“I looked in the back of his car and there were three kids in the car crying and he said their house was listed in a social media post.”

Their children saw this post. “He didn’t want to go home. The kids didn’t want to go home.”

In response to the post, she said community members quietly took action and looked out for their neighbors. “There were literally people watching outside,” he said, adding: “While he was outside, someone was probably already at his door, moving around, circling.”

The list has fueled a culture of fear that permeates Belfast’s small minority ethnic communities. Just like the violent attacks of the last two nights.

On Wednesday night, a mob tried to attack a hotel housing asylum seekers, but when they were unable to reach the hotel because the road was blocked by police, clashes broke out with officers in a nearby residential street. The night before, minority ethnic families were forced from their homes, businesses were looted and burned, and vehicles were set on fire.

Mohammed fled Syria during the war in 2015; He lifts his trouser leg to show the scar on his shin from the bomb explosion. Their children were all born here and speak with a Belfast accent. But now he plans to leave this summer, perhaps returning to Syria or Egypt. “We are not like this man [the knife attack suspect]”We’re just looking for a new life,” he said.

The supermarket he runs in a predominantly loyalist area of ​​Belfast was set ablaze on Tuesday; its entire stock was destroyed. “The situation at home is very bad. My children are crying. We don’t actually sleep. This morning, at four in the morning, my little son said to me: ‘I don’t want to go to school. I don’t want to go to school.’ I sleep next to him. Another child is sleeping with his mother.

The owner of the business is another Syrian family. Sultan, the shop owner’s son, watched the shop burn on the news. “We knew he was gone,” he said. “There’s nothing else you can do. This is wrong. This all happened to innocent people. The store burned down. A few houses burned down too.”

“It felt bad to have your family business disappear before your eyes. I couldn’t do anything about it at the time.” Even when they called emergency services there was so much chaos they had difficulty responding. “The police said they did everything they could,” he said. “It was a terrible night.”

Kfloum Tekly Kassa was evacuated from the block of flats above the shop passage where the supermarket was set on fire. He had to escape with his wife and two-month-old daughter and went to their friends.

They have lived in Belfast for almost four years. He works as a forager in the food industry and his wife was working in a restaurant until she went on maternity leave.

“It’s very difficult,” he said. “My wife was very scared. This is not humanity.” He is afraid too. “I have children. Maybe I don’t know what will happen. I hope we will come to a better place, I hope everything is okay.”

This week’s violence has shone a light on racism in Northern Ireland. Last year racist incidents were at their highest level on record and are now outweighing sectarian incidents.

“We were waiting for something,” said Kashif Akram of the Islamic Center Belfast. “Unfortunately, we have been expecting something every summer since August 2024. Summer is a very difficult time.”

“Last year there was someone trying to break into the building,” he said. “Fortunately, he was denied entry. He went around the building, broke a window, actually two doors up from here, and threw an incendiary device.”

“It’s almost like this is allowed,” he added. “The dehumanization of immigrants and Muslims is an ongoing thing, you can see it especially on social media, there are so-called vigilante groups prowling the streets.”

“And in my opinion, far-right politicians have really normalized violence,” he said. “They legitimized the fear of immigration.”

Tim Magowan is chief executive of the 174 Foundation, which works to build relationships between local and immigrant people. It’s right around the corner from Monday’s incident that led to violence.

English classes for refugees had to be stopped on Tuesday and people forced from their homes have been turning up at the charity’s clothes bank.

While events such as this week’s and last year’s Ballymena riots have brought the issue to the fore, Magowan said: “What was clear was that it was bubbling under the surface.”

“Most black people I know have stories,” he said. “I think it’s really important that we’re aware of that, and we’re working on what we can do to challenge that.”

“Currently, only 3% of people of color live in our communities,” Magowan added. “So we are not used to a multi-ethnic world.

“I think we also have a culture that is fundamentally based on division. We’ve grown up, we’re very protected physically, most of us live in single-identity communities.

“We are psychologically trained to have defended mindsets and are used to constructing our identities by things we are not.”