Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to Monday's violent disorder in Coolock in Dublin.
An incident room has been set up in the local Garda Station and officers are in the process of collating and harvesting CCTV and social media images from the disturbance.
Anyone who has information, including on the people involved in organising the events, is being asked to come forward.
Meanwhile, The chief executive of Doras, the independent organisation working to promote and protect the rights of people from a migrant background in Ireland, John Lannon, has called for every effort to be made to bring the people involved in violent incidents in Coolock to justice.
“The Government needs to bring the people who are orchestrating the violence to justice, not allow them to continue to damage communities and put people’s well-being, lives at risk,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
The Government also needs to do is to pay more attention to their messaging around the rights of asylum seekers and the State's obligations to them, he said. “They also need to ensure timely, constructive community engagement when these centres are being opened”
Mr Lannon said as he was not an expert on policing he could not comment on how the gardaí should go about their work, but there were people orchestrating the violence, they were spreading misinformation, much of which was visible on social media, that needed to be addressed.
“There needs to be constructive engagement from the social media companies to ensure that the lies and the misinformation are not being spread or are not seeping into communities. We also need to ensure that there's timely, constructive community engagement in the run up to preparation of new accommodation centres, but doing this in a constructive way, working with the groups that want to make the communities work, that want to welcome refugees, and ensuring that there is a way to deal with voices that are very loud and attempt to undermine and destabilise our communities and make life difficult for everyone.
“What we're seeing now is something that's been developing over a while. It's worrying, it is particularly frightening for asylum seekers, for communities that are experiencing the violence. Immigration is now being used to push other agendas. Misinformation is being spread about people seeking protection, about people working to support them, about politicians.
Far-right element
“There is a far-right element behind this, it's being organised. And that's one of the most worrying things. We know that immigration, whether it's voluntary or forced, is a reality that can't be avoided in today's world. We see communities are changing for lots of reasons, but in many cases they're struggling to cope with those changes. There are people we see that are feeling excluded or left behind when it comes to how often we see the anger, but the problem is that innocent people are being targeted, and that's not going to lead to constructive outcomes for anyone.
“The protests are certainly causing increasing levels of distress and worry amongst refugee communities. And I'd say most migrant communities in general, they’ve seen the content. It's getting posted on social media, including some very racist material, threats of violence, that sort of thing. That's even more troubling for people from a refugee or migrant background. We are hearing more and more of this from the migrant communities we support.”
