‘Profiling’ is the practice of determining whether certain people are likely to have been involved in criminal acts, based on their personal or behavioural characteristics.
It is commonly employed by law enforcement the world over in cases where a credible suspect cannot be identified by more obvious means. But it takes on a sinister turn when elements of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion play an unduly significant role.
Racial profiling has become increasingly prevalent since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. And it has come even further to the fore in this time of global economic unrest, when minorities can easy become scapegoats for the public and authorities alike.
From past reports of Muslims being removed from airliners to assuage the fears of paranoid passengers, to the high-profile arrest for burglary of a black Harvard professor on the porch of his own home, are ethnic minorities right to be concerned about their human rights? The answer appears to be yes.
And Ireland is not immune from the growing trend, as many immigrants here have complained of this very problem.
Salome Mbugua is originally from Kenya. Living in Ireland for the past 15 years and married to an Irishman, she is director of AkiDwA, the African and migrant women’s network in Ireland, which she founded in 2001. She also sits on the board of the Equality Authority.
With such a wealth of experience dealing with equality issues, Mbugua was shocked to have experienced racial profiling two times in the last six months.
“The first time was in August 2009,” she explains. “I was travelling with a group. We had visited Monaghan and were on our way back home to Dublin. We were just near Balbriggan when our bus was stopped by two gardaí.”
Mbugua explained that everyone on the bus was asked to show identification. “Most people didn’t have any ID but they showed a bank card or something. I had my annual Irish Rail pass with a photograph on it, which was more identification than a lot of people showed.
“The bus was full. I was the only African on the bus, and [one of the] gardaí focused on me. He kept asking me questions like where I was from, what my asylum seeker’s number was, how did I get to Ireland.”
Mbugua was shocked that he was so blatant in questioning only her. “It wasn’t fair. They held up the bus for 20 minutes and were only reinforcing stereotypes. I tried to explain to them that I was on the board of the Equality Authority and that I had lived in Ireland for 15 years but they wouldn’t listen.”
Eventually the bus was allowed to continue on its way, but the experience raised many questions in Mbugua’s mind.
Two months later, she was to encounter similar behaviour.
“I had visited Wales with my eight-year-old daughter and we were going through the ferry terminal at Holyhead to return home,” she says. “We were stopped in the queue and our passports were taken away. It seemed to me that they were only stopping and targeting people who looked different – in other words, those who didn’t look Irish.”
Mbugua was stopped for a total of eight minutes, which might not seem all that long until one considers the fact that no other passenger was taken aside by the port authorities.
“They asked me who had given me my passport, where I was from and how long I had been living in Ireland,” she recalls. “I felt horrible.”
Mbugua understands the need for security checks at points of entry, but is firmly of the view that it would be fairer to ask everyone for identification rather than to just target a certain few. It is this behaviour, she says, that not only reinforces stereotypes and prejudice but fuels them, too.
AkiDwA recently highlighted their concerns in a letter to An Garda Síochána, and also took part in the Garda Consultation Forum. With 2,775 women on its database and an affiliation with 36 groups, AkiDwA has a pool of experience in the areas of equality and integration that is hard to argue with.
Overall, Mbugua feels that more needs to be done about the issue of racial profiling, but also racism in general.
“Racism has been neglected recently,” she says. “It is a societal problem, but the funding that used to be in place [to tackle the issue] has now ceased.”
* Dr Ike Okafor shared his own experienced of racial profiling.
The paediatric registrar from Nigeria has been living in Ireland since 2003. He recounted a day in October 2009, when he was driving home from the hospital in the afternoon.
As he pulled up outside his house in Clonee, he noticed an unmarked Garda car driving behind him. It stopped and two men, dressed in plain clothes, got out and walked towards him.
“They tapped on the window and so I opened the door,” he said, thinking that they were simply looking for directions. “They identified themselves as gardaí and asked to see my identification, so I showed them my driving license.”
They then told him that they wanted to see his Garda National Immigration Bureau card. “I always carry it so I showed it to them. They looked at it thoroughly.”
Not content with that, Dr Okafor says the gardaí continued to ask him questions about his residence permit. He explained to them that he had an Irish-born child, and that he worked as a doctor.
“On hearing that, they said ‘okay’ and walked away,” he said. “I was numb with tiredness after a long shift at the hospital. All I wanted to do was sleep.”
It was only afterwards that Dr Okafor felt anger at what he perceived to be a clear example of racial profiling.
“I’m not sure when they started following me but it must have been for a while as there are a lot of little turns you have to take to reach my road,” he said. “I sometimes wonder if it was a case of mistaken identify, but even if that was the reason, why did they continue to ask questions, and why didn’t they apologise?”
If it happened again, Dr Okafor said he would make sure to take down the names and identification numbers of the gardaí involved. As it is, he doesn’t feel there is any point in complaining about the incident, as he can provide no particulars.
“I have asked a few friends and none of them have experienced such an obvious example of racial profiling,” he said.
But fortunately, the experience has not changed the way Dr Okafor feels about life in Ireland – or about the police force.
“The gardaí have difficult jobs and most of them are polite and courteous,” he added.
