A Belfast estate agent whose business was rammed by a car believes he was targeted because of claims he was renting homes to asylum seekers.
Police said a car was hijacked by a group of masked men on Fingal Street at around 8.45pm on Tuesday and “deliberately driven” at the front of Rea Estate Agents at Woodvale Road, causing minimal damage to the building, before the vehicle occupants made off from the scene.
Business owner Robert McDowell told the BBC that false claims had circulated on social media suggesting the business was providing homes for asylum seekers.
“I’m sitting here in shock - totally shocked to be truthful - and a bit scared and very, very concerned for the people in that building,” he said.
“Staff are worried about actually being in their own homes because some of them live quite close by and close to our office - that this could spread and they themselves could be targeted because of where they work.
“There’s one tenant who has said he’s had enough. He’s going back to Africa. I know of another family who returned to India. She was a nurse but her house was targeted, and a sticker was put on the window, which made it very clear that because of where she was born, she wasn’t welcome in the area.”
The business owner added: “There’s a big difference between what we’d been accused of doing, which is housing asylum seekers, and—as I said—we can let houses to people who have a right to live here and work in Northern Ireland.
“As everybody knows who has visited a hospital or a care home or a nursing home recently, those businesses have been recruiting very heavily outside the UK, and people are travelling to Northern Ireland to work.”
North Belfast TUV councillor Ron McDowell condemned the events on Tuesday night as he urged people not to give into the violence.
He told the Irish News: “People are pushing these issues to misdirect anger in our community and that is disgraceful.
“This led to a protest at the premises last week and the owner of the business had reached out because he was keen to quell rumours being shared on social media and wanted to find an amicable solution, but obviously the events overtook us.
“People are getting sucked into this vacuum filled with racial attacks and far-right extremism and this increasing anger and hate will not serve our community.”
Police officers were deployed to the scene just after 9.25pm, following a report that masked men were smashing windows in the nearby Rathlin Street area.
Three men, aged 26, 28 and 41 years, were arrested on suspicion of offences including criminal damage and remained in custody on Wednesday.
A PSNI spokesperson said enquiries are ongoing and that they have set up a Major Incident Public Portal for people to submit information.
Photos and footage, including CCTV, mobile phone or dash cam footage, can be shared with police through the Major Incident Public Portal at Public Portal (mipp.police.uk).”
