Australia, Ireland and beyond: Are attacks on Indians abroad on the rise?

On July 19, an Indian man was brutally attacked by a mob in Ireland’s Dublin, leaving him dripping in blood from his head to toe. On the very same day, in Australia’s Adelaide, a 23-year-old Indian was brutally beaten after being ambushed by five men following a dispute over a parking spot.

The two incidents occurred thousands of kilometres away, but has the same theme — hatred against Indians on foreign soil. In fact, data reveals that such attacks on Indians are rising in recent times.

We take a closer look at how a rising number of Indians are becoming victims of attacks; in some extreme cases, the incidents are even fatal.

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Indians attacked in Dublin

On July 19, a married father of one, who had left his wife and child in India to take up a job in Dublin just weeks before, was brutally assaulted, robbed and stripped of some of his clothes in Tallaght, a suburb in the Irish capital.

The attack by a gang of teenagers came after they had falsely accused the man of acting inappropriately around children. These claims were later spread online, including by prominent far-right and anti-immigrant accounts, said a report by The Irish Times.

However, the Irish police, Garda, said there is no truth to accusations the man was acting inappropriately.

A friend of the man, who was attacked, told The Irish Times that it all began when he had set off on foot to the Vinayaka Hindu temple in Kingswood, following a Google Maps route on July 19. While walking through Kilnamanagh, he was approached by a group of teenagers who started taunting him and asking why he was in Ireland.

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“He tried explaining he’d been hired by a tech company to fill a skills gap here in Ireland. And then they hit him badly on the head. For 10 to 12 seconds he didn’t know where he was and then he realised blood was oozing from his forehead.”

Following the attack, the group stripped him of his pants, leaving him to wander in a dazed state through the residential area. “He was trying to take cover and seek help; he was so ashamed. A couple of cars passed him and one man hurled abuse at him. There’s a video of that.”

Local resident, Jennifer Murray, who was travelling on the same route, spotted him bloodied, and gave him a blanket, waiting with him for an ambulance to arrive.

An emotional Murray broke down while recounting the incident, saying the man kept thanking her repeatedly.

However, while this incident has garnered a lot of attention, it isn’t the only one that has occurred in Dublin. Another Indian, Vikram Jain, an Irish citizen for some years now, recounted how his tenant had also been attacked by a gang. The young man, who is studying for a master’s degree at Dublin Business School, arrived back at Jain’s home with a broken nose.

The student was walking through Sean Walsh Park in Tallaght about 6 pm when, he said, he was approached by a group of teenagers. “They started hurling verbal abuse at him and then they punched him in the face and all over his body,” Jain told The Irish Times.

Indian student thrashed in Adelaide

Notably, at the same time when the 40-year-old Indian was being beaten up in Dublin, a 23-year-old was assaulted in Adelaide following what he described as a dispute over parking and alleged racist remarks.

The incident took place on Saturday night on Kintore Avenue. The man involved in the attack, identified as Charanpreet Singh, who is in the Australian city for his education, said it all unfolded when a group approached his vehicle, hurled racial slurs and then repeatedly punched him to the ground.

“They just said ‘f**k off, Indian’, and after that they just started punching,” Singh told 9News from his hospital bed. “I tried to fight back, but they beat me until I was unconscious.”

He sustained severe injuries, including brain trauma and multiple facial fractures. He was rushed to the hospital, where he remained under medical care overnight. The following day, the South Australia Police arrested a 20-year-old man from Enfield and charged him with assault causing harm. However, the rest of the attackers are yet to be identified. Police have appealed for public assistance in tracking them down.

The assault has sparked outrage among Adelaide’s Indian community and raised concerns about the safety of international students and immigrants in Australia.

Prior to this, in October 2022, a 28-year-old, pursuing his PhD from in mechanical engineering from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, was brutally attacked with a knife and allegedly stabbed 11 times. The student, identified as Shubham Garg, was reportedly attacked in a racial attack.

Indians assaulted on foreign soil

The two recent incidents of Indians being attacked aren’t one-off incidents; it’s part of a growing pattern across the world.

Data from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reveals that a total of 91 Indian students have been attacked abroad in the past five years. Moreover, data reveals that in the past five years, 30 students have lost their lives in such attacks.

As per the numbers, there were 40 violent attacks on Indian students in 2024, 28 in 2023, four in 2022, two in 2021 and three in 2020.

According to the data provided by the MEA, Canada accounted for the highest number of cases, reporting 27 violent attacks, of which 16 were fatal. Russia recorded 15 incidents with no reported deaths.

The United Kingdom and Germany followed with 12 and 11 cases, respectively, with one death reported in each country. The United States saw nine violent attacks — all of which resulted in the deaths of Indian students.

Additionally, one fatal case each was reported from China and Kyrgyzstan. Ireland, the Philippines, Italy and Iran reported four, three, three, and one case respectively, none of which led to fatalities. Australia recorded four incidents, including one death.

The MEA has also separately issued figures for attacks on Indians overseas. Eighty-six Indians were attacked in 2023 — with the most cases being reported in the US (12), the UK (10), Saudi Arabia (10) and Canada (10). This is an increase from 57 in 2022 and 29 in 2021.

Separately, an RTI filed by activist Dr Vivek Pandey last year revealed that up to 28,458 Indians have died abroad in the past three years. According to the reply, 24,278 Indians died of natural causes, 1,622 in accidents, 686 due to occupational hazards, 1,736 from suicide, and 136 from violence and murder. “Some of which [deaths] pertain to Indian students,” Praveen Kumar Munjal, Chief Public Information Officer, MEA stated.

It’s left to be seen what comes next — but officials note that more needs to be done to ensure that Indians are safe abroad.

With inputs from agencies