Irish police arrest 12 over anti-immigration protest clashes

DUBLIN: Irish police on Monday arrested 12 people during violent clashes with anti-immigration protesters at a building site for a planned asylum seeker housing facility in Dublin.

“A number of Garda vehicles have been damaged,” police added in a statement, using the name for the Irish national force. The clashes are the latest at sites earmarked for asylum seekers who have arrived in Ireland in growing numbers in recent years. Videos posted on social media showed machinery and construction materials on fire at the site, a former paint factory in the north of the capital.

Protestors threw bricks and launched fireworks at police, who used pepper spray to disperse the crowd of more than 100 mostly males and teenagers. One video showed a person, believed to be a worker at the site, which is planned for repurposing as an accommodation facility for up to 500 asylum seekers, being removed from the scene on a stretcher.

Protests at the site entrance have delayed the start of work “for several months”, the integration ministry said. The violence was sparked by a provider attempting to start work, said the ministry, which is responsible for housing asylum seekers. Ireland´s Justice Minister Helen McEntee told the Irish Times newspaper that she was “appalled” by the scenes and that those involved would face the “full rigours of the law”.