An asylum seeker who fled conflict in Syria with his family says they feel they can no longer walk safely in the street after their accommodation was attacked in Belfast.
Muhammad Soufi has been staying with his wife and two young children in a NI Housing Executive hostel in the east of the city which was targeted during disorder on Wednesday night.
The property in Upper Frank Street was attacked in what police are treating as a race-related hate crime.
It was one of a number of incidents on Wednesday and the early hours of Thursday, including bins being set on fire and police attacked in nearby Connswater Street, and damage to homes and cars in Silverstream Road in north Belfast and Sandy Row in the south of the city.
The window of the hostel room where Mr Soufi and his family were staying was smashed with a rock during the trouble at Upper Frank Street, and he told the Irish News that his family has been left “scared they will come again”.
“We were sleeping when we heard the trouble outside, then the window was smashed,” he said.
“It was very scary, and we didn’t know what to do.”
He said police responded to the incident, but he now plans to seek alternative accommodation out of fear of further attacks.
“I’m scared for this night, if they come back,” he said.
“I won’t be able to sleep in case it happens again. My son is five and my daughter is eight. They don’t want to stay here. I am trying to find somewhere else - I have a friend and his family, but their house is too small for us all to stay in.”
He added: “My wife has not left the house recently because she wears the hijab. I feel I can no longer go out because I’m a Muslim who is a refugee. We only want safety.”
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A PSNI spokesperson said five arrests were made across Belfast following Wednesday’s disorder, and the force has decided to “significantly mobilise” officers “to ensure that we have additional visible policing able to respond to protest and disorder effectively”.
The force is also requesting additional officers from across the UK to support policing operations in the days ahead.
East Belfast SDLP councillor Séamas de Faoite condemned the “thugs intent on putting life and livelihood at risk” in the disorder.
He said in a post to X (formerly Twitter): “As it is in other parts of the city, it’s clear there are older men controlling, and putting young people up to this.”
A spokesperson for the NI Housing Executive said two windows of the hostel were smashed during the attack.
“Residents of the hostel were in the property at the time,” they said.
“Fortunately, no-one was hurt, but the residents were left extremely shaken.
They added: “We have been working throughout the day to support our residents and will continue to do so in the days and weeks ahead.”
