Swatti Verma was coming out of a gym in Dublin earlier this month when she came across a middle-aged woman who seemed to be looking for directions. Verma’s instinct was to stop to help, but she was met by a barrage of verbal abuse.
“You’re coming to Ireland paying landlords. Biggest mistake you’ve ever made,” the woman shouted at Verma (34). “Why can’t you go back to your own country? India is not a European country.”
This type of incident is all-too-routine in the Irish capital, many immigrants in the city say. What made this different was the abuse was video-recorded; a clip later went viral online.
Verma, a musician and data analyst, recalls how the woman started “yelling at me” and “she started questioning me about if I have a work permit to work in the country, if I have an Irish passport, or where do I live.”
Someone in a car passing by intervened and shouted at the woman.
It wasn’t the first such episode for Verma. She describes being harassed several times in Dublin and believes she has been targeted for the colour of her skin and because of her accent.
One of the most traumatic episodes was in July last year while she was busking in Henry Street, Dublin, and was harassed by two youngsters.
“They started trying to throw my equipment away while I was packing
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