Dungannon: NIs diversity town goes to the polls
BBC By Niall McCracken
BBC News NI
One of Northern Ireland's fastest-growing migrant communities are casting their votes for elections thousands of miles away.
More than 2,000 people from East Timor who are living in Northern Ireland are registered to vote in their country's parliamentary elections on Sunday.
It's being made possible because of a specially designated polling station set up in County Tyrone.
It comes just days after Northern Ireland's local council elections.
The East Timorese parliamentary election coincides with Northern Ireland's first-ever Timorese-themed festival that is taking place in Dungannon this weekend.
'It's my second home'
The past decade has seen a huge increase in the number of people from East Timor coming to Northern Ireland.
Many work in the food-processing and manufacturing industries in the Craigavon and Dungannon areas.
The 2011 census recorded that 894 people born in East Timor were living in Northern Ireland.
But according to the latest 2021 census data, there were 2,874 people from East Timor here, with more than 2,000 based in the Mid-Ulster area.
