US professor alleges racist outburst by immigration officer

A US professor visiting Ireland has expressed her shock at an alleged anti-Romany outburst by an immigration officer at Dublin Airport when she told him she was attending the Roma Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration.

Prof Ethel Brooks, associate professor of women’s and gender studies and sociology at Rutgers State University in New Jersey, arrived in Dublin on Tuesday.

Of Romany extraction, she said she did not make a complaint at the time because she was terrified she might not be allowed into the country.

The US Holocaust Memorial Council member said she thought Ireland was an “example of human rights”, but was stunned that this could be the treatment Roma faced arriving in the State.

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The Romany activist said that when she explained the reason for her visit “the border guard said, ‘right, those people who steal and beg’. I told him, ‘I’m part of that community’. And he said, ‘well you’ve never been to Milan where you stand at an ATM and they’ll just force you to give them all your money – and you see it constantly in Dublin you have to watch your purse as well’.”

Minority status

Prof Brooke added: “I was stunned because I just didn’t expect this.”

She said the immigration officer also referred to the minority status granted in March to Travellers and Roma in Ireland.

“The border guard said, ‘and now they’ve got minority status and they’re going to be taking social benefits and doing all sorts of things’.”

She claimed he said “it’s really just about people’s actions . . . It’s really about the ways in which you can’t really live beside them”.

She was shocked by his comments and said she did not take his name. “As a person of Romany descent – when someone begins that I think, ‘oh my God, is he going to stamp my passport or is he going to send me back.’ It’s terrifying.”

Prof Brooks said it was particularly shocking as she was speaking at a ceremony in Ireland supported by the Government.

The Roma Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at the Mansion House was sponsored by the Department of Justice and the US embassy.

Prof Brooks said she had been celebrating the granting by the Irish State of minority status to Traveller and Roma communities on March 1st, but was stunned by the officer’s response.

Persecution

“I think about Ireland as an example of human rights and a place you can come to. You see the Roma who have come here from Romania, from the former Yugoslavia from Hungary, Czech Republic where they’re facing persecution, where they’re facing fascism, where they’re facing school segregation and for them to be able to come here and put their kids in school and live as citizens.”

She added: “To think that people coming here to live or people coming to visit from the Romany community and that’s what you’re greeted with. It’s shocking.”

A Garda spokesman said the issue had been forwarded to the Garda National Immigration Bureau to be fully investigated.

The spokesman added that, “ if a member of the public wishes to make a complaint in relation to a member of An Garda Síochána they can do so by contacting the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission”.