YAREN – Tensions between refugees and locals on the pacific island of Nauru have been heightened again after a series of violent attacks that have left multiple refugees injured or arrested.

More than 400 former asylum seekers have received refugee status and now live on the island, but local resentment towards them is reportedly high.

Late last year they were threatened with violence if they did not stop taking jobs away from Nauruans and fraternising with local women.

The most recent attack came earlier this week when two masked assailants followed three refugees on a motorbike.

“When they pulled their bike over, the assailants were carrying a machete and a baseball bat,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“The woman managed to get away but the male, you know, the rider of the motorbike was smashed across the back with a baseball bat.”

Several days beforehand a refugee was injured when he was hit by a rock allegedly thrown at him by a local.

Iranian refugee Zahra was travelling on a motorbike with her husband Meysam when she said a local threw a rock at them.

“They threw the stone at us and one of them they threw at my husband Meysam and he couldn’t control the bike and after that he fell down,” she said.

“He has injured – his face, his chest, arms, his hand and his foot and I injured in my shoulder, my hand and my leg.”

She said her appeals for help from authorities on Nauru have been ignored, and that she feared for her life.

Rintoul said the frequency of the attacks was increasing and that the worst assault happened last year when a man was blinded.

“A man actually was blinded in one eye after again a similar incident – rocks being thrown at him and struck in the eye and he’s lost the sight in his eye,” he said.

“I mean, the next worst is the one two nights ago when rocks again were thrown at two people on a motorcycle.

“The motorcycle ended up crashing, the guy was unconscious for a considerable period of time. I mean, he’s turned out to be OK, thank goodness, but that’s good luck.”

Iranian refugee Constantinos, who has been on the island for 20 months, said almost every family had a story of someone being attacked.

“My dad and one of his friends was one of those victims,” he said.

“They used to go out fishing. Two or three months ago, two locals came through and they kicked my father and his friend, and they fell down from four metres from a boat harbour and they hit the rocks.”

A series of refugee protests against the attacks have resulted in a number of refugees being arrested, and Constantinos said attempts to make peace with the locals had failed.

“We have already told them that we don’t have issues with you, we have issues with the government,” he said. “We don’t want to make enemies.”