A Nigerian asylum-seeker sent to Waterford under the Government's mandatory dispersal programme says he was beaten up in the town within days of his arrival.
Mr Stanley Obinna Chukwu (25) has returned to Dublin following the attack in which his nose was broken. He says he was repeatedly threatened by youths who told him they did not want blacks in Waterford.
Mr Chukwu says he is "seriously afraid" to leave the capital following the incident and has requested that he be allowed stay in Dublin instead of being dispersed again.
The attack on Mr Chukwu in Waterford took place on Manor Street, close to the hostel he was sent to last week under the Government's scheme of mandatory dispersal of newly-arrived asylum-seekers to areas outside Dublin.
Mr Chukwu said he and some other African asylum-seekers had just left the hostel when they were approached by a group of youths who asked them what they were doing in Waterford.
"They told us they didn't want to see any blacks in Waterford. I told them it was the Government that sent me there," he said.
According to Mr Chukwu, he and his friends were attacked by the same youths hours later as they returned to the hostel. Mr Chukwu was treated for his injuries that night, but was followed by the same youths when he returned to the hospital several days later for follow-up treatment.
"The next morning I packed my case and came back to Dublin. Yesterday I was told I would be sent to Limerick, but I said `No, I'm not going anywhere. I have to get my treatment in the hospital in Dublin and I don't know what will happen to me in Limerick'," he said. A spokeswoman for the Anti-Racism Campaign said she was not surprised that such incidents occurred, particularly outside Dublin, "when communities are not given proper warnings or consultation about asylum-seekers coming to their areas."
She said the Government was "consistently sending out a message that asylum-seekers are people we should be wary of, who are at least spongers, and at best criminals."
The assault comes amid concerns over the growing number of attacks on non-nationals. The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism urged the Government to review existing legislation to see whether it was sufficient to cope with racially-motivated crime. The committee, said that the Garda's PULSE data collection system should be urgently used to categorise crimes which were racially motivated.
A recent survey by the African Refugee Network found that more than a third of African refugees in Dublin had experienced verbal or physical abuse.