A security guard has been suspended after a video showed an asylum seeker at Citywest Transit Hub being punched multiple times.
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) March 22, 2024
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FOOTAGE SEEN BY The Journal shows security guards at an asylum seeker reception centre in Dublin holding an asylum seeker down, while one strikes him hard in the head 15 times.
A Department of Integration spokesperson said that it is aware of a “serious incident” that took place in Citywest Transit Hub today.
They said an investigation was “immediately launched” and a security officer has been suspended pending the results of that investigation.
“The safety and security of International Protection applicants is a priority at all times and there is zero tolerance of violent behaviour within IP accommodation settings. All security personnel are garda vetted and PSA licensed, and any breach of standard security response behaviours is not acceptable,” the spokesperson added.
It is not known what happened before the start of the video of the incident.
The man who was struck is Algerian, and has been living in CityWest for almost five months, where he said this incident happened after 7 am this morning.
He told The Journal this evening: “I am not OK. I have been to Tallaght Hospital today, they have told me about doing scans. The men who did this were security in the centre.”
“I am on the way back to Citywest now, I have to go there, I have no other accommodation. A cleaner said she would get some extra pillows for me, the gardai are coming to speak to me shortly,” he added.
In the first video of the incident seen by The Journal, three security guards are involved in pinning a man down to the ground, while his arms are held back.
In the footage, the man, who is speaking in a foreign accent and is barefoot but fully clothed, says something about his phone, and is told by a guard: “Don’t worry, I have your phone here”.
Several men in bunk beds in a large hall can be seen watching on.
In a second video, also seen by this website, two security guards are holding the man’s arms above him, as he is hanging just above the ground, while another, who is on the ground next to the man, strikes the man in the back of his head with his fist 15 times consecutively.
Someone in the background can be heard saying: “Drag the head of him, drag the head of him, yes, Get him up, get him up, get him up”.
While the man is being punched in the head, two men who appear to be security guards are holding him over the ground the entire time.
The man does not make any noise, and his head can be seen hanging unsupported between blows.
Gardaí said no report has been filed on this incident.
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