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Rev. Martin Smyth: I share with my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mr. Hunter) his concerns about multi-agency approaches in so far as we have discovered that when they start working, it is difficult to get them all working at one place at the same time. Usually, the key person does not turn up and that causes problems, and the individual or the problem is set aside for a little longer. On the other hand, multi-agencies must be challenged, even to ensure that they are doing their own work properly. I want to look at that in a moment.
I want to put on record, when we are speaking about bottom-up approaches, that I used south Belfast as an example not because I believed that it has the worst record, but because it was perceived to have more racism than anywhere else, which is primarily because it is a university area, with medical provisions and activities going on. I am aware of the problem; some of it is organised and some of it is just gratuitous.
I have a constituent who was not altogether happy with his reception in the Republic of Ireland. He got on a bus to travel to Northern Ireland, thinking that although he was on the same island he would be going to a different country, but there was no border or frontier posts. So he asked the bus driver where he should report as a migrant coming into the country. The bus driver told him to go to the police station, which he did. He explained his situation and was told that he could not stay. ''Well, let me go back then,'' he said. The reply was, ''Oh no,'' and he was put into protective custody. He is now an illegal immigrant fighting the system.
That is one sort of problem. The hon. Member for Hull, North (Mr. McNamara) referred to another problem when he talked about the international agencies that are interested in what is going on. I was made aware of the white slave traffic in Northern Ireland as a result of an approach from an agency in New York. It seemed strange to me that our own local authorities were not aware of what was happening. When we drew their attention to it they turned a blind eye and covered it up until finally the situation was exposed: people from the Baltic were getting work permits to come to Northern Ireland as exotic dancers.
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We have been referring to multi-agencies, but there is also a problem with the main Department here, which is responsible for migration, even though work permits may be issued by the Northern Ireland Department.
I referred earlier to south Belfast not being the worst place, and I will return to the bottom-up approach. For years in the Finaghy area there has been a dancing group of youngsters who are taught to integrate. They do Irish and Indian dancing and put on performances in different places to show that cultures can work together. I had the privilege of going to a community centre on the Lisburn road where there was a presentation of African culture, which was open to the community. On that road there is also a Chinese Christian church. That is not a new phenomenon: my doctor when I was a lad came from the Caribbean.
Northern Ireland is a small community, but it has many people from abroad, although latterly there has been the increase to which the Minister referred. Some of that increase has been because of genuine work opportunities as people from this country and from the island of Ireland have gone abroad for work opportunities. I have no difficulty with that. However, there should have been some preparation for the reception of Chinese people, for example, who are brought in to work in the restaurant industry. Unfortunately, whatever their wages are and whether or not there is any inspection of their conditions, their housing accommodation is deplorable. To deal with that requires a multi-agency approach.
I do not lay all the blame on the Housing Executive, but it does have some responsibility, as the Minister knows because he kindly visited part of my constituency to investigate some of the problems. The Housing Executive was selling off social needs housing to landlords who then changed them into accommodation for students and nurses in medical practice in the Royal Victoria hospital. I recognise that they need accommodation, but I also understand the cries that have been heard about the politics of envy. I can understand the feelings of young people who want to live in social accommodation in an area where they had been brought up, but cannot because the landlords are pricing them out.
Mr. Luke: The hon. Gentleman is making a strong case for a heightened role for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. It should take a much more proactive role to ensure that the practices he described are controlled. Would he agree?
Rev. Martin Smyth: I accept what the hon. Gentleman says and agree that there needs to be a more proactive lead in providing social housing. It is a question not simply of people coming into our areas, but of those who want to remain in those areas but cannot afford the prices that are now being charged by landlords.
Those recruiting also have responsibility. I am thinking now of rural areas. We think of India, Pakistan and China, but there has been a large influx from eastern Europe. I am not sure where they are living, but I should have thought that firms bringing them in for work should at least try to provide proper
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accommodation for them. The multi-agency approach is an important aspect of this.
I hope that the Department will examine how some of these people, particularly Filipinos, have been employed. They have been recruited as nurses. Are they being paid at the proper nursing rate when they are assigned to residential homes in the private sector where they are not being used to their full nursing capacity? They have been trained, but they have been set aside on the grounds that they need local training and local understanding. I have a little bit of sympathy there because with the different dialects in Northern Ireland they may have difficulty understanding what we mean at times. Some people may be exploiting these people and that is wrong because it causes tension between members of various communities.
In no way would I condone any attack upon any individual for any of those reasons. In that context I wonder why the police, whom I have supported over the decades, have not been able to bring successful prosecutions. Or, has it been that the DPP has judged that he is unable to prosecute? We think of this as local people against migrant people, but is there not another reason behind it? Cases have been brought to my attention where folk have been attacking others within their own communities. Some months back in Northern Ireland we suspected that a Chinese girl had been murdered by the locals. In the end some Chinese were brought to justice. One of the difficulties of integrating some sections of that society is the rule of the Tongs and their unwillingness to make a public commitment and to testify against others.
The security services have to detect the criminals who are exploiting our health service by bringing in women for emergency obstetric deliveries, for example. That is a growing number which has been hidden for some time. Now, at last, the Department and others are beginning to investigate. Certainly, the Royal College of Nursing is concerned about what is happening because the pressure of caring for such folk in an emergency—there are often no case records—is being put on its midwives.
A multi-ethnic, and above all, a multi-agency approach will be required, with all its weaknesses. If it is not multi-agency, at least each of the agencies should be doing their own work in their own communities and sharing it with others as best they can.
Several hon. Members rose—
The Chairman: Order. I should tell members of the Committee that I hope to call the Minister to reply to the debate not later than 5.20 pm. I understand that there are two hon. Members seeking to catch my eye and I shall try to call them both, but I appeal to them to keep their contributions relatively brief.
4.56 pm
Mr. Roy Beggs (East Antrim) (UUP): I welcome the fact that the issue of race crime and the Government's multi-agency approach to tackling it is before the Grand Committee today.
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The Minister claimed last week that the alarming rise in violence towards ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland is slowing down. I fear that that view is shared only by the Minister and his officials. The figures provided to me also vary: they show that there have been 312 racist attacks in Northern Ireland over the last six months, compared with 453 during the whole of 2003–04. That represents a massive increase on figures from five years ago. I look forward to hearing the Minister's explanation of how he views the current situation as a slowing down of violence towards ethnic minority communities.
The Minister will also be aware that, as with race crime in other parts of the United Kingdom, the figures recorded by the police are only a portion of the crimes that are taking place. Where racial tensions are high, there is always huge pressure on victims of race crimes to remain silent for fear of reprisals should he or she dare to speak out against racists.
The result of those sickening developments is the emergence of a culture of racism and fear in Northern Ireland. The challenge posed by the huge rise in racially motivated crime must be met with a firm hand by the Government, not simply by the usual soundbites, platitudes and spin. Primarily, there is only one thing that our ethnic minorities want: a multi-agency, Government initiative that will have a clear, positive and tangible impact on those in Northern Ireland who are bearing the brunt of the rise in racist violence and intimidation. The ethic minority leaders want to see measures aimed at tackling race crime in Northern Ireland effectively, which have a positive, confidence-building impact on their communities.
A couple of years ago, the chief executive of the Chinese community, Anna Lo, said that Chinese people had been treated
''as second-class citizens by public bodies in Northern Ireland''.
I know that the House will want to send a clear message to the Chinese community, and to all ethnic minority groups in Northern Ireland, that there is no such thing as a second-class citizen in Northern Ireland. Our public bodies must reflect the cultural diversity that enriches our society. We must develop in Northern Ireland a culture of tolerance and understanding that effectively counteracts the culture of racism.
In the education sector, we have seen evidence of some disturbing trends. Donegal Road primary school and Fane Street primary school in Belfast have both recorded a fall in the number of children from ethnic minority backgrounds in the last year, from 10 to one and 12 to one respectively. The headmasters of both schools confirm that in the vast majority of those cases, the departure of the pupils was the direct result of their parents being racially harassed and intimidated out of the area.
I give the Committee one shocking and disgusting example of the nature of that intimidation, One parent, a Malaysian mother of four, who is conducting post-doctoral research at Ulster university, was intimidated and bullied by thugs at her home and on her way to school. As a result, the
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family packed up its bags and left. That is the sort of sickening behaviour and organised criminal activity that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland are desperate for the Government to stamp out.
There is also good news concerning the ethnic minority communities. As my hon. Friend the Member for North Down said, the way in which the Mater hospital in Belfast and the Indian community handled the influx of nurses from Karalla in southern India should be seen as a model of good practice. I have nothing but praise for the community in that area for welcoming the essential workers so warmly into their streets and schools. Staff from the Mater hospital travelled to India to recruit nurses because there was already a well-established Indian community in their area. They then worked with that community and the indigenous communities in the area to help integrate the foreign workers and make them feel welcome. That good practice and sensible community relations must be repeated across the Province and should be at the core of the Government's policy proposals.
Praise must go also to Northern Ireland's head teachers and schoolteachers. While we are witnessing a rise in racially motivated crime and inter-ethnic tension in Northern Ireland, there is little or no evidence of racially motivated bullying in our schools. Many schools put the promotion of racial tolerance high on their agendas in both their assemblies and classrooms. Our schools have placed an emphasis on creating cultural awareness and have involved the Churches in the process.
Yet there is work to be done, as schools with large numbers of children from ethnic minority backgrounds need more outreach teachers to help cope with those children who need extra English tuition. That point has also been referred to by my right hon. Friend the Member for Upper Bann. At present, there are only seven outreach teachers in Belfast, and head teachers have been calling for an increase in funding to match the ethnic minority community's needs to expand the sector. Will the Minister outline his plans to develop that support network, and detail what extra funding is available for addressing racism in education in Northern Ireland's schools and when it will be provided?
My hon. Friends and I have addressed some issues that we know the ethnic minority communities are concerned about and some issues that the Government must address urgently. Building good community relations, however, is a two-way process. I therefore call on all community leaders to show leadership and I urge the leaders of our ethnic minority communities to play a proactive role in both easing their communities' integration process and informing society of the problems that they face. To do that, ethnic minority groups must have funding security. With that they can plan their community's future development. I welcome the Minister's announcement of Government plans for longer-term secure funding of community groups in the next few years.
My colleagues and I in the Ulster Unionist party stand side by side with the ethnic minority communities in their plight against racism, as do the vast majority of people across Northern Ireland. We
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are an inclusive, pluralist party and that means we represent all constituents regardless of race, colour or creed. We will monitor closely the multi-agency approach outlined by the Minister today to ensure both that the quality of life of ethnic minority groups improves rapidly and we remove racism and hate crimes from Northern Ireland.
5.4 pm
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