Gardaí investigate alleged slashing of asylum seekers' tents in Herbert Park
are investigating an incident in which the tents of
homeless
asylum seekers
were allegedly slashed in a south
Dublin
park.
The alleged incident occurred on Sunday morning in
Herbert Park
in Dublin 4 where three Somali men had been sleeping at the far edge of the park, near the Dodder river.
They said a man had been harassing them on Saturday evening and came back at about 7.30am on Sunday as they were sleeping.
'He shouted and attack[ed] the tent. He cut the tents and kept saying he will burn it and come back with friends and dogs and attack us,' one of the men told The Irish Times.
READ MORE
One of the asylum seekers (or applicants for international protection) filmed the man as he approached, before he allegedly cut the tents. Wearing a blue T-shirt and black knee-length shorts, he is seen throwing his bicycle to the ground and shouting in the one-minute-12-second video.
'You are not allowed here. This is a park for children. Out. Out now. Tonight when you sleep, dogs are coming. You come here tonight and fire. I'll f**king burn yous. Get out here. I don't care,' he can be heard saying.
'Get the f**k out now. I'll be back in 15 minutes and I am going to f**king burn them. I am going to ring fellas now and they are coming with dogs, dogs. You have 15 minutes to get the f**k out of here.'
He asks if he is being filmed. The camera is no longer focused on him as he continues to shout. Sounds can be heard of him allegedly throwing and cutting the tents.
Tents in Herbert Park believed to have been used by migrants. Photograph: Barry Cronin
The men also show a video of the same man, filmed as they sat on a nearby bench on Saturday evening, snapping the tents' rods. He shouts over to them: 'You won't be in here.'
Asked how they were, the youngest, who is 24, said: 'It is terrifying.'
As the men spoke at about 10am on Sunday, the man they said had earlier slashed the tents returned on a bicycle identical to that in the video, and began speaking to a volunteer who was packing up the men's sleeping bags.
'There are children here, women here. You are not thinking about that when you are leaving them here. You brought them into the country. You look after them,' he said to the volunteer.
Asked by The Irish Times what his concern was with the men camping in the park, he said: 'They were going to the toilet here this morning. There were women passing. It's terrible. I know there's no toilets for them but there's a centre up the road. Put them in the centre.'
It is not clear what centre he was referring to.
The volunteer, who asked not be named because it was 'too dangerous' for volunteers to be identified, called gardaí. Two arrived in a squad car and took the men's names and copies of videos they had taken.
The gardaí said they would contact the International Protection Accommodation Service and ask that the men be accommodated urgently.
The incident comes as those working with unaccommodated asylum seekers have warned of a 'tangible increase in risk', with tents at small encampments targeted.
[
Afghan refugee attacked in Limerick after being wrongly accused by far-right group of approaches to children
Opens in new window
]
Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said protection applicants' tents had been similarly damaged on Friday morning.
'We are deeply concerned about the situation of people seeking protection who are sleeping rough,' he said.
'In recent weeks, there has been a tangible increase in risk. Tents have been slashed, as happened today, camping spaces fenced off and social-media posts have circulated showing tents being filmed, accompanied by inflammatory commentary and threatening symbols such as flames.
'People in this situation have been followed by people who have posted footage online with ... far-right and racist statements.'
He said male asylum seekers were not being provided with accommodation on arrival but were accommodated after a few days, sometimes just 24 hours after arrival, if they slept rough.
'In effect, the system requires people to sleep rough in order to demonstrate eligibility for accommodation, exposing them to serious harm. This policy has been found to be unlawful by the High Court in two different cases,' said Mr Henderson.
This was placing 'enormous pressure on volunteers' he said, many of whom had been supporting people 'almost continuously' for over two years.
'We again call on the Government ... to fulfil its legal obligations and accommodate people seeking protection.'
The volunteer on Sunday said: 'No one wants to wake up in the morning and bring their family to the park and see people camping there. Nobody wants that. And we don't need to have that, but this seems to be deliberate policy of making people sleep rough.
'I think it's a policy of dissuasion so word goes back [to others thinking of seeking asylum in Ireland] that 'you are not really welcome here'. The risk is so high placing them on the streets.'
[
Violent clashes break out between far-right groups and migrants in Spanish town
Opens in new window
]
Gardaí and the Department of Justice have been contacted for comment.
The Somali men said they had been in Ireland between five and 10 days. Two were aged 30 and one 24. The youngest said they had arrived in Ireland through Dublin Airport.
'At the airport they took our fingerprints, took photos and gave us this blue card [International Protection Office temporary residence certificate]. They told us to go and sort ourselves.'
Asked if they were offered accommodation or told when they could get shelter, he said: 'No. They just gave us some locations where we can find food and charging our phones.
'We sleep here and elsewhere in tents. Before yesterday we didn't have problem[s] with other people.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Gardaí to use gait analysis and voice recognition to identify suspects
Gardaí will soon receive powers to use artificial intelligence to analyse the gait, voice and other physiological features of suspects during criminal investigation. These biometric investigative tools will be used alongside facial recognition to identify suspects in serious offences and to locate missing people. At first, investigators will only be able to use these powers retroactively, to process evidence already available to them such as CCTV and phone footage. However, further legislation is planned to allow these tools to be used in a live setting, alongside live facial recognition, in situations where there is an imminent threat to life. Under the plans, gardaí will be empowered to use artificial intelligence to identify the physiological characteristics of suspects on recorded footage. READ MORE This includes computer programmes that can analyse the gait of a person - the unique way they walk - to identify them. Other programmes will be able to identify people based on their voices patterns. There has been significant debate regarding the Government's plans to introduce facial recognition technology in recent years, with criticism coming from civil liberties and privacy groups. However, this is the first time the Government has confirmed it will also legislate for other forms of biometric data in criminal investigations. The upcoming legislation 'will provide the power to utilise biometric technologies generally', a Department of Justice spokesman said. 'This could include the use of physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of an individual, such as face, gait or voice', he said, but will not include DNA analysis and fingerprints, which are provided for in separate legislation. As technology develops, other potential forms of analysis will become available overtime. These include tools allowing suspects to be identified by other unique markers, such as the shape of their ears or the pattern of veins in their hands. Technology is even being developed to identify people based on the movement of their eyes and the unique odours they give off. All of these types of biometric data are provided for in the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act which, according to the Department of Justice, which will form the basis for Irish legislation in this arena. Artificial technology will be used to compare biometric characteristics and provide a percentage based assessment of whether they match. Garda management has long been calling for facial recognition powers to analyse digital evidence, which is becoming more prevalent in criminal investigations. Manually going through hours of CCTV to identify suspects 'is becoming unfeasible and ineffective', Commissioner Drew Harris said last year. He was speaking in the aftermath of the Dublin riots, when gardaí had to manually process 22,000 hours of CCTV footage to identify offenders. In response to queries, the department stressed the new powers will be based on a 'bedrock' of human rights and that trained gardaí will review all results produced by biometric technologies. 'At the moment Garda investigations can involve teams of gardaí spending months and months trawling through footage from CCTV, footage captured on a phone or from passersby. 'Biometric technologies will help An Garda Síochána carry out investigations quickly and efficiently and will save valuable Garda time. It will prove to be of particular assistance where time is of the essence in order to preserve a person from a threat of serious harm or a threat to their life or the lives of others.' [ Abeba Birhane: We're headed for big problems if gardaí get facial recognition technology Opens in new window ] The department said the technology will also save gardaí 'from the harrowing work of poring over thousands or even millions of images and footage of child sexual abuse material'.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
‘Honest belief' of consent to sex may no longer be a defence in rape cases
An 'honest' belief that an alleged victim had consented to sex may no longer be a legal defence in rape cases if proposals being considered by the Government become law. The Department of Justice and the Office of the Attorney General are currently considering the proposal to significantly modify the State's consent laws. The planned reform is at advanced stage, has the backing of the Law Reform Commission and is a key part of the Government's plan to take action on consent laws. Under the proposal, an accused person could not be acquitted of rape if a court found that their belief that the alleged victim had consented was not an objectively reasonable belief. READ MORE Case law in the State indicates that an accused person could defend themselves from a rape charge by testifying that they honestly believed their accuser had consented to sex, even if that belief is not reasonable or rational. In 2016, the Supreme Court found, in the case of The People (DPP) v C O'R, that an 'honest, though unreasonable, mistake that the woman was consenting is a defence to rape'. It added that the belief must be 'genuinely held' by the accused. In 2017, the attorney general asked the Law Reform Commission to examine the issue. The 'honest belief' defence came under scrutiny as the Oireachtas was passing a 2017 law that clarified the circumstances under which a person could not legally consent to sex. These included when they were asleep, unconscious, incapacitated by drugs or alcohol, or consenting under the threat or use of force. The Law Reform Commission advised a change of the law to clarify that an accused person commits the crime of rape if he 'does not reasonably believe' the alleged victim was consenting. The Department of Justice is now progressing the planned reform with the Office of the Attorney General. It is one of a number of reforms of the way the criminal justice system handles rape and sexual assault allegations, which is a focus for Government officials in the wake of a scoping inquiry into historic abuse in schools. Last week, the Government announced a commission of inquiry into the handling of historic sexual abuse allegations in schools. Officials from a number of Government departments, who were tasked with writing a report on the recommendations of the scoping inquiry published last year, noted that the majority of survivors who detailed their experiences with the scoping inquiry 'had a negative, and in some cases, retraumatising, experience with the legal system'. [ Officials resist schools abuse redress scheme Opens in new window ] In a report published last week, the interdepartmental group added that a negative experience with the legal system 'may influence survivors' perspectives on participating in a future process such as a commission of investigation'. Survivors had called on the State to 'make the legal system more accessible and appropriate for victims of sexual crimes'.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Dáil committee to scrutinise how Tusla has spent millions on ‘complex litigation'
The Child and Family Agency, Tusla , is facing an investigation by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over how millions of euro have been run up in legal costs over number of years arising from 'complex litigation' and a protected disclosure. The costs include about €416,000 spent on a report on issues raised in a whistleblower disclosure made to the Minister for Children. The report was later quashed by the courts. Tusla's accounts signal that the State Claims Agency will this year record significant additional costs arising from the same circumstances. The chairman of the PAC, John Brady of Sinn Féin , said the amounts involved represented 'extraordinary levels of expenditure'. READ MORE Tusla told The Irish Times it cannot comment on legal cases. However, some details were provided by the State's financial watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy, and in a governance statement in Tusla's annual accounts for 2024, which have just been published. Mr McCarthy told the PAC on Thursday that he wanted to draw attention to some matters including compensation and legal costs incurred by Tusla and the State Claims Agency in respect of four cases taken against Tusla. He said the compensation payments to the four individuals totalled €799,000, while plaintiff legal costs of €949,000 were paid in two cases and Tusla's own legal costs incurred to date are €1.6 million. Mr McCarthy said the legal costs of the State Claims Agency for these matters are not yet known. The Tusla annual accounts show€848,000 was paid out in legal costs last year as well as €296,000 in legal compensation. The accounts refer to legal settlements and costs relating to 'complex litigation cases' arising from circumstances before 2018. In a governance statement and board members' report, it says a protected disclosure to the Government resulted in Tusla's board engaging an external investigator to look into the matter. The investigator's report was nullified by the courts following litigation. 'Tusla's own costs in relation to this action have amounted to just under €1.6 million to date,' the accounts note. This figure includes €416,000 for the third-party investigation and report. The case was settled after mediation, with Tusla paying €200,000 damages and the State Claims Agency paying an additional €100,000 award to the individual. Legal costs have not yet been finalised, the accounts report notes. A second case, involving 'complex' constitutional and administrative law issues, was settled via mediation with €49,500 damages paid. The other party's legal costs were €870,000, the report says. Separately, the accounts say, two additional separate awards were made through the State Claims Agency to individuals 'arising from the same circumstances'. An award of €309,000 was made in 2025 (legal costs relating to this have not been finalised), while €140,000 was made in 2023, carrying with it a €79,000 legal costs bill. Tusla said it 'does not comment on individual legal cases or specific settlements due to legal confidentiality, the integrity of the process and the rights of the individuals involved'. The agency said a detailed note was provided in its annual report and financial statements. Mr McCarthy said it was for Tusla to provide explanations to the committee regarding the issues involved. The committee said it would seek for Tusla to appear before it in the autumn.
