Article from the March 2006 issue of the Socialist
newspaper of the Socialist Party, Irish section of the CWI

End exploitation of migrant workers

Stop Racist attacks

By Daniel Waldron Belfast Socialist Youth
IN FEBRUARY this year, there were a series of high-profile racist attacks in Northern Ireland. In Dundonald, the house of a Filipino nurse and her family was attacked with petrol bombs. Before the incident, the racist thugs cut the telephone line to prevent them calling for help. An abusive note was also left behind. Violent attacks also took place against immigrant workers in Portadown and Dungannon.

However, only a small number of cases grab the media's attention. Physical, verbal abuse and discrimination against ethnic minorities are now a daily occurrence. The number of racist attacks recorded by police in 2002 was 226. Last year, this figure rose to 813, and many attacks go unreported as many immigrants fear further assaults if they speak out.

The right-wing tabloids and the government attempt to scapegoat immigrants for the crises facing our public services, saying that they are sapping funding. They are blamed for the lack of housing and jobs. This is simply propaganda. Public services were in a dire condition long before immigrant workers began to come to the North in significant numbers, and ethnic minorities are still a tiny percentage of the population here.

In fact, it is the capitalist, neo-liberal policies of the New Labour government that are responsible for the situation facing working people of all backgrounds today. They are not properly investing into the health and education services and are actually handing them over to profit-hungry big business through PFI/PPP schemes. Our healthcare service is reliant upon healthcare workers, particularly nurses, from other countries, since the derisory pay they receive puts many people from Northern Ireland off going into the profession. There is a total lack of development of social housing or investment to provide decent jobs.

Big business brutally exploits immigrant workers who come here seeking a better life for themselves and their families, using them as a source of cheap labour to make huge profits and force down wages. The GAMA dispute in the South last year highlighted this. Turkish workers were being paid less than £2 per hour and forced to live in cramped accommodation on site. Any dissent meant being sacked and immediately sent back to Turkey.

Similar cases have been documented in Dungannon, where employers have lied to Portuguese workers about their rights to get them to accept disgusting conditions and pay. We have been contacted about a Polish worker in Newry who lost his finger in an accident at work. He was given £100 in "compensation", immediately sacked and flown back to Poland!

Working class people of all ethnic backgrounds must work together in the trade unions and communities to prevent racist attacks and to fight for their common interests, against exploitation and for decent jobs, services and housing for all!