A Pakistani doctor based in Co Donegal is considering leaving Ireland after being racially abused and threatened during an alleged incident this week.
She said she was followed and threatened by a man after leaving work in her car last Tuesday evening.
A vehicle started to follow her and the driver began beeping the horn before cutting her off, she said.
She initially thought it might have been road rage, but realised it was something more serious when the man followed her down a cul-de-sac.
READ MORE
“His intent was to isolate me in that cul-de-sac and then probably physically assault me,” she told The Irish Times.
When she realised he was following her, she drove back on to the main road where there were more people. The man again followed her and got out of his car.
The doctor said the man called her “the c-word” and a number of racial slurs she did not want to repeat.
“I didn’t roll down my windows. I didn’t come out. He was trying to tempt me [out of the car],” said the doctor, who is based in Letterkenny.
She said the man made violent threats and aggressive gestures. She filmed him on her phone and called the Garda.
The doctor, who did not want to be named, said the incident lasted 20 to 30 minutes before the man finally left.
Local gardaí arrived shortly afterwards and she gave them the man’s car registration number, she said.
The doctor believes the incident was “definitely” racially motivated and said she was “scared for my life”.
The doctor, who has lived in Ireland for almost five years, said she has noticed an increase in aggressive behaviour from certain people in recent months.
“I have to go out of my way to serve others, but, in return, I’m receiving this kind of assaulting behaviour,” she said.
“I definitely don’t think Ireland is a place where I can stay for much longer. I’m going to think about it and probably go back home.
“A lot of people now want us to pack our bags, go back home. So I’ll probably seriously consider it.
“The only reason I came here was the fact that Ireland is safe. That’s not the case any more.”
The doctor said she has not yet given a formal statement to the Garda, but plans to. Gardaí have been contacted for comment.
Dr Mustafa Mehmood, of the Irish Pakistani Professionals Association, said the doctor’s experience was “deeply concerning”, but “not an isolated incident”.
“Many immigrant doctors have reported similar racial intimidation and harassment while travelling to and from work,” he said.
Dr Mehmood has lived in Ireland for nearly 13 years. He said he would infrequently hear about such incidents in the past, but now it was often once or twice a week.
He is a consultant based in St James’s Hospital, Dublin, and said many of his colleagues were “afraid” to get public transport, especially at night.
On a number of occasions, Dr Mehmood said patients had told him and colleagues: “I’d rather be seen by someone who is Irish; I’d rather be seen by someone who is not brown.”
The cause of the recent increase in reported attacks on immigrants was “multifactorial”, he said, but he believed the spread of “far-right” rhetoric online was partly to blame.
He said “immigrants are being scapegoated” as the cause of the housing crisis and other problems, instead of blaming the “failed policies of a number of governments over the years”.
“The Government has miserably failed to clamp down on right-wing action,” he said.
