The group initially started bullying the family’s young son with additional needs before targeting them with abuse
A migrant family living in the Short Strand area of Belfast say they have dealt with months of abuse and anti-social behaviour from a group of young people who target them whenever they leave their home.
The family purchased a home in the area hoping that it would be a nice place to raise their family, however they soon started to have issues with a group of young people targeting their son with abuse. Over the following months this escalated to the group targeting the entire family and their home.
Speaking to Belfast Live, the mother in the household said that problems have got so bad for her family that they are harassed and shouted at anytime that they leave their homes. She says that she has tried to have the issue resolved with her son’s school, the local youth club and police, but every time she is assured the abuse would stop, it continues a few hours later.
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The woman said: “We bought our house here hoping that it would be a nice place to raise our family, but instead we have had to deal with constant harassment and intimidation.
“This started when a group of children started bullying our son, who has some additional needs, and they would taunt him and scream at him when he was out in the street or coming home from school. Then as the months have gone on this has only got worse, with older children now joining in and targeting him.
“It has now got to the point where anytime anyone from our family leaves the house we have to deal with a group shouting abuse at us, with them recently starting to throw things at our house. We have tried all that we can to have this issue addressed through the school, youth club and police, and we have been given assurances that the issues will stop, but hours later we find ourselves being targeted again.
“We don’t know if it is because of our son’s additional needs that they are targeting us, the fact that we are from somewhere else or just a lack of parental supervision, but we can’t understand why we keep getting abused like this. We are a white family from Europe, I cannot imagine what more visible minorities have to face.”
Inspector Carey said: “Our Neighbourhood Policing Team is aware of the ongoing issue of antisocial behaviour in this area in relation to a small number of young people. The most recent report was received at around 7.25pm on Sunday, 12th October in the Seaforde Street area.
“On this occasion, no offences were identified, however, a similar report received at around 6pm on Friday, 10th October is being treated as a hate crime.
“The Neighbourhood Policing Team is working with local community organisations and representatives to address this ongoing issue.
“We would encourage parents and guardians to be aware of where their young people are and who they are with – and to warn them of the dangers of getting involved in this type of behaviour. Ultimately, they could end up with a criminal record which may impact their future employment and travel prospects.
“We would ask that anyone who sees ongoing antisocial behaviour reports it to us on 101 – or 999 in an emergency. Reporting crimes or incidents that impact on your quality of life helps us to focus our patrols where they are needed and take positive action.”
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