THE DARK SIDE OF YOUR PIZZA DELIVERY
Just over a week after one of their own was killed on the streets of Dublin, Brazilian Deliveroo cyclists tell how they are routinely attacked on treacherous routes
They’d go to jail in other countries. Here, police do nothing
They kicked me, saying they wanted my bike, cursing me
DELIVEROO worker Joabe Altino had saved for four months to buy a scooter, which would make his work much easier. He was just about to turn into Fairview Park in Dublin last January when two teenagers sprang at him, punched him and demanded his scooter. He tried to flee, but one of them shoved him hard out onto the traffic. He fell over fast, the weight of the Deliveroo bag on his back pulling him down.
‘If a bus was coming, for sure, I was dead,’ he says.
They grabbed his scooter and drove off, leaving him lying on the ground with cuts and bruises to his hands and arms.
‘I was very upset. It was only my second day back in Ireland after visiting my family in Brazil,’ he said.
He reported the incident to gardaí but they seemed almost indifferent, he said.
‘It was: “OK, where did it happen? What time? Now you can go”.’
The thieves were never caught.
He is now back riding a bicycle and tries to avoid Fairview Park. ‘We get such short time on orders, I never want to go to Fairview Park but sometimes I have to, just to cycle past it,’ he said.
He and his friend, Kaleb Fraiteas, list off the no-go areas of Dublin, the notorious districts that every new rider hears about from veterans. ‘Rialto,’ they both say. Kaleb will go there, but only in the morning. They, and many other Deliveroo cyclists, avoid large parts of west Dublin, Finglas, Ballyfermot, Inchicore, Dolphin’s Bar, the Guinness Storehouse. ‘Some still go there, but they cycle like crazy,’ says Joabe.
They avoid Sheriff Street and the north inner city as much as they can, especially after Deliveroo cyclist Thiago Cortes was killed in a hit-and-run in the North Wall Quays late last month.
His death became a focal point for the mostly Brazilian Deliveroo cyclists, who have grown tired of street muggings, harassment and robberies.
They took to the streets in the days after Thiago’s death, seeking tougher Garda and Government action to tackle street crime.
Joabe shows me a photo of himself from one of the street protests. He is wearing a Brazil jersey and a sign demanding action for immigrant cyclists, who feel that nobody is listening.
He is now thinking of returning to Brazil out of frustration.
‘Every country has people who have low education but in Ireland, they do anything they want,’ he says. ‘They go into supermarkets and take things, they rob from us. In other countries, they will go to jail but here, the police do nothing. I am planning to go back to Brazil, I am getting tired, working and working and then these things happen. The teenagers, they shout at us, they call us **** s and a**holes. They think, “I’m going to rob this guy, because nothing will happen to me”. They get Government
money but they want more. Well, get a job!’
Until now, he has been smiling but for the first time in the interview, it feels that he is getting really angry.
He and Kaleb are on Baggot
Street near Ballsbridge, where many Deliveroo and Just Eat cyclists gather because of the large number of restaurants serving affluent clientele.
Tonight is unseasonably warm, which is bad news for Dublin’s Deliveroo brigades.
‘We pray for rain and for cold,’ says Kaleb with a smile. ‘When it is cold or there is rain, the people do not go out to eat and they use us to deliver food. In winter, we make much more money.’
Kaleb is from São Paulo, where he made good money working as a bank clerk but he wanted to travel and learn English. He came to Ireland, hoping it would be the first stop in a long tour. Then the pandemic came. ‘That stopped me travelling completely,’ he says. ‘Now I work and I study.’
Few noticed Deliveroo cyclists until the lockdown. Suddenly, people couldn’t eat in restaurants and couldn’t venture more than 2km from their homes. It would seem like the ideal time to be a Deliveroo
cyclist – no cars on the road, a huge demand for takeout meals and they had the city to themselves.
However, with schools closed, and a huge crash in the economy, street crime surfaced. Kaleb was cycling through Sheriff Street Lower when a man came out on the road and tried to grab him – the combination of a bike, a phone and a large bag full of pizza boxes makes him a tempting target.
‘He tried to get me but I cycled quickly away, I told the police but they didn’t do anything,’ he says.
He looks at his phone, which lights up with an order from a fastfood restaurant across the road. Within a minute, he is off to nearby St Mary’s Road with the delivery.
Joabe finds business particularly slow tonight and, because of the danger of crossing town, he has a self-imposed curfew. ‘I will do two more orders and then go home. I live in Drumcondra and I have to cycle through the city centre to get there and that is not safe after 9.30pm, I will have to go soon.’
Ballsbridge is busy now with delivery cyclists coming in and out of the restaurants. I cycle up to Dublin 8 and search for delivery cyclists. I wait outside the flats in Dolphin’s Barn, then the petrol station across the road, where the busy Parnell Road cycle lane might bring some Deliveroo cyclists. There are none. I cycle to Kilmainham and wait at the crossroads outside the Four Star Pizza. Nothing. I cycle to Rialto and go around the roundabout and wait at the long line of fast-food restaurants. Fifteen minutes pass, there are no delivery cyclists.
The next day, I order through Deliveroo to a gated apartment block in Rialto. A cyclist does come. He has only been in Ireland for a few weeks and has almost no English. He is, what Joabe calls, ‘one of the new ones who hasn’t talked with the others’.
Another Brazilian Deliveroo cyclist, Eder, explains the dangers of Dublin 8. ‘I was attacked and they tried to steal my bicycle.
‘I was attacked next to the [Coombe] women’s hospital, by a group of teenagers, they kicked me, saying they wanted my bike, cursing me, being aggressive. I didn’t even speak.
‘I was very lucky because there were good people in the cars at the traffic lights who honked and told them to leave me alone. I took advantage and left running [with my bike]. After that I avoid making deliveries in the Dublin 8 region: near this hospital, behind Guinness, Rialto and Dolphin’s Barn.’
Like his friend, Joabe, he is now thinking of quitting and going back to Brazil. ‘Working as a delivery boy is getting more and more difficult because of attacks and violence in the streets,’ he said.
‘After all the robberies, it’s not only me, we are all getting more and more scared.’