RACIST graffiti targeting Syrian migrants has been daubed on a wall in Co Antrim.
'Syrians not welcome' was sprayed on the side wall of a toilet block close to the harbour in the West Strand area of Portrush.
Police said it was painted sometime between 5pm on Saturday and the early hours of Sunday morning. It had been painted over again by yesterday afternoon.
A PSNI spokesman said: "Enquiries are continuing and the incident is being treated as a racist hate crime."
SDLP assembly member John Dallat said: "This is a classic example of xenophobia, a hatred against foreigners and it must not be allowed to occupy public space anywhere.
"This sends out the entirely wrong message that racism is alive and well here and that is not true."
Sinn Féin MLA Caoimhe Archibald also condemned those responsible.
"This is outrageous, racism has no place in our society," she said.
"I have contacted the council to have this display of racist hatred removed and I call on anyone with information on those responsible to bring it forward to the police."
She added that ahead of the Open golf tournament there was "an onus on local political and community leaders in Portrush to stand together and speak with one voice in opposition to those attempting to stoke up racial hatred and tensions".
It comes weeks after a fire at a former hotel in Roscommon due to be opened as an accommodation centre for asylum seekers.
The Shannon Key West hotel in Rooskey, on the Leitrim/Roscommon border, was attacked twice in the space of a month.
A Donegal hotel where 100 asylum seekers were due to move into last December has also been targeted.
The Caiseal Mara Hotel in Moville, which was to become a 'direct provision centre', was set on fire in November.
