{"id":211597,"date":"2025-12-02T15:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/211597\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:49:09","slug":"afghan-asylum-seekers-allegedly-chased-and-beaten-for-20-minutes-by-gang-in-dublin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/211597\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan asylum seekers allegedly chased and \u2018beaten for 20 minutes\u2019 by gang in Dublin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A group of men from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/afghanistan\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/afghanistan\/\">Afghanistan<\/a> say they were subjected to a beating by a group of more than 10 people in Brittas, Co Dublin. The windows of their car were also broken. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The alleged attackers used racist slurs, one of the men told The Irish Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Afghan men were taken by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/an-garda-siochana\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/an-garda-siochana\/\">garda\u00ed<\/a> for medical treatment for injuries after the attack on Sunday, but had to leave their car at the scene in Brittas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">When they returned for the vehicle on Monday, some attackers appeared at the scene again, forcing them to flee, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One of the victims, Muhammad, said about 12 to 14 people, including three on motorbikes and people in a car, had attacked them on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThey broke the windows of our car and they started beating the driver,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI was in the front seat and four people came to my side, broke the car window and punched me in my head, stomach and in my face. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cOne of my friends was on the back seat, and [the attackers] broke that window also and punched him in the head, face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Muhammad and the other two men, all Afghan nationals, have been in Ireland some months and are international protection applicants  fleeing the Taliban regime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said the group attack, and being subjected to a second incident on Monday, left him and his two countrymen in fear, even though their experience of Ireland in recent months had been overwhelmingly positive. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThey were saying things like, \u2018You f**king immigrant, f**k you\u2019,\u201d Muhammad said of Sunday\u2019s attack. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThey were beating us for about 20 minutes and then they ran away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Their attackers fled after two local people intervened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The local people recorded some of the attack on a mobile phone and called garda\u00ed. They arrived at the scene, but the alleged attackers had gone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One local source, who works as a volunteer in the area, said the community was shocked at the violence in what appeared to be a sustained attack on the men and their car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cEveryone in our community deserves safety, but [on Sunday] we saw a senseless assault on people in our community just because of their immigration status and where they lived,\u201d the volunteer said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe need our politicians to take this seriously and [to] speak out in support of people who come to Ireland seeking safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The alleged attack happened after the three Afghan men had been transferred from the Citywest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas\/\">International Protection Accommodation Service<\/a> centre in Co Dublin to another one in Co Wicklow. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They went to a garage in Tallaght to buy supplies. On leaving the garage, they noticed a driver was pursuing them very closely, which continued for a long period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">They eventually pulled over at a roadside in Brittas to speak to the pursuing driver. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">When they did, other people allegedly arrived on motorbikes and in another car, with the first allegedly blocking the Afghan men in. They say they were then subjected to a beating for about 20 minutes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After the attack, garda\u00ed took the three men to Tallaght University Hospital. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The men have since given statements to garda\u00ed in Tallaght. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Garda Headquarters said an investigation was under way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cGarda\u00ed are investigating an assault and criminal damage incident that occurred on Aghfarrell Road in Brittas, Co Dublin, at approximately 2.30pm on Sunday,\u201d An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThree males \u2013 aged late teens, 20s and 30s \u2013 were conveyed to Tallaght University Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Investigations are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of men from Afghanistan say they were subjected to a beating by a group of more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[18928,956,9,10,52,18,13,14,6,19,56707,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,946],"class_list":{"0":"post-211597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-an-garda-siochana","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-dublin","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-international-protection-accommodation-services-ipas","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-wicklow"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115650767364083218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}