One of the people responsible for pastoral support at the church where over 100 Romanians took solace after fleeing their homes has described the massive operation entailed in accommodating the large group.

Belfast City Church on University Avenue opened its doors to the destitute families after they became aware of their plight and they were able to spend a night of safety and relative comfort before being moved to accommodation at Queen’s University yesterday evening.

Trish Morgan, pastoral support and media co-ordinator at the south Belfast church, said the congregation was only too happy to offer sanctuary to the terrified families.

She explained: “I got a phone call from one of our members on Tuesday night as she works in race relations. She told me she was with the Romanians and there was police present and the atmosphere was getting incredibly tense.

“She said something needed to be done and they had to get the people out but they didn’t know where to take them so she asked me if we could open up the church. Some of our guys were down there already cleaning up so I rang them and told them something quite critical was happening so we decided to open the church and within half an hour we had over 100 people there.

“We rang a couple of other agencies to help and another church which has experience in food distribution and they brought some food round. People were turning up with supplies as well. We don’t have fixed seating in the hall and everyone camped down. The Red Cross turned up with blow up mattresses and we were able to find an old pump and get them blown up.

“It was a very strange atmosphere. Everyone got stuck in helping out. Every room was filled with people. The babies didn’t know what was going on, the toddlers kept going until they dropped and we were able to put a video on for the children so it was like a night out for them but it was different with the parents.

“The mums especially looked exhausted, really stressed out and I don’t blame them. They turned up with the possessions they were able to pack together before leaving their homes. It wasn’t the experience they were planning for when they came to Northern Ireland. There were real mixed emotions when they arrived, they were stressed and frightened and relieved they had come to a place of safety.

“They got to see throughout the night that the people who have attacked them are not the real people of Belfast. It is only a small minority of people who, for one reason or another, need to get a grip and realise you can’t hate people because they are different. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair.”