A Nigerian man working in Ireland has voiced his fears of the danger he and other immigrants currently face after a violent riot broke out in Dublin on Thursday.
The man, who simply identified himself as a Nigerian scholar teaching at Whitehall College for Further Education, said that he was worried about his safety.
“This morning, I am on my way to work. I work at Whitehall College for Further Education here in Dublin. There was a riot here against foreigners here and we had to run for dear life. As you can see, it is dangerous for a black man like me to be here. I am trying to find a way out before I get killed by these angry protesters who don’t want to see a black man (here),” the teacher said.
“I have been in Ireland for a while now, and I have never seen something like this where foreigners are being attacked. I am a lecturer here, who is doing something good for my community. It is a shame that our government is so bad that we end up here. I studied in this country. I did my undergraduate and post-graduate studies here.
“Now, I teach here. It is just a shame that my country is so terrible that it is not adaptable for anyone that we all have to end up in a foreign land where we face abuse at all levels. From our earnings, we pay our rent, mortgage, insurance and so on. The little money that is left, you have to send it to Nigeria.”
This Nigerian said that it was a shame that some extremists wished to get rid of immigrants who contributed to the growth of Ireland.
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Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) have made no official statement on the state of Nigerians in Dublin days after the riot.
Abike Dabiri Erewa, NiDCOM’s Chairman, said that government must make Nigeria more conducive for Nigerians in order to prevent them from leaving to uncertain conditions abroad. Erewa was, however, passing this comment in response to Nigerians stuck in asylum centres in Canada.
“I agree the government must make the environment conducive for its citizens, but let’s reduce the temptation to go and get into a tougher place; don’t leave to where you thought was a greener pasture to something worse or more deadly,” Erewa said in a TV interview on Sunday.
The Dublin riot broke out after unconfirmed reports claimed that a man who stabbed a handful of children was an Algerian immigrant. Some groups spread rumours of an immigrant attacking children, and anti-immigrant groups went berserk on the streets of Dublin.
They burnt cars, bikes and a train on the city’s metro line. Ireland’s riot police struggled to quell the violent uprising till Friday.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, said that he was shocked by the incident.
The authorities were yet to reveal the identity of the stabbing culprit or confirm if the initial attack was carried out by an immigrant at press time. Over 30 people have been arrested in connection to the riots so far.
