After attacks on immigrants’ homes, groups patrol the streets to intimidate potential victims, who try to keep a low profile
When a mob stormed a neighbourhood in Ballymena last summer to expel families from their homes, a chilling shout echoed around the narrow streets: “Where are the foreigners?”
The hunt for immigrants in the Northern Ireland town prompted Poles, Bulgarians, Filipinos, Nigerians and other nationalities to flee or barricade their doors. Police called the outburst of hate an attempted pogrom, one that made headlines around the world.
Six months later, several houses around Clonavon Terrace are still scorched, empty shells, and the homes that remain occupied tend to have curtains drawn even during the day.
“Everybody is being very careful. It’s on a knife-edge,” said a health worker from Africa who declined to share his name or nationality. Another resident, from the Czech Republic, said he ventured out only when necessary. “Men with masks drive up and down. They slow down and look at you.”
