A second night of rioting struck the town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, as anti-immigrant protests spread to several other areas and the police warned of “hate-fueled acts.”
Homes, businesses and vehicles were again attacked in Ballymena, a town of about 31,000 people, where several properties were set on fire on Monday night following a demonstration over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl.
The outbreak of violence began after two 14-year-old boys appeared in a local court on Monday charged with attempted oral rape on Saturday night. The boys spoke through a Romanian translator, the BBC reported, and both denied the charges through their lawyer.
The case triggered an outcry in the town, and tapped into a broader anti-immigrant movement that has resulted in several outbreaks of violence in recent years. Far-right groups and influencers on social media amplified news of the assault case and celebrated the ensuing riots.
Northern Ireland has seen increased immigration in recent years, with the percentage of the population born outside of the United Kingdom rising from 6.5 percent in 2011 to 8.6 percent in 2021, according to the most recent census data. But the number of immigrants is still relatively low compared with many other countries in Europe, and emigration is high. Experts say that far-right activists have exploited a housing shortage and an ongoing cost of living crisis to incite violence against asylum seekers and other migrants.
On Tuesday evening, police officers came under “sustained attack” with Molotov cocktails, bricks and fireworks, according to a statement from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and 17 officers were injured.
A heavily pregnant woman was evacuated from one of the houses set on fire, local politician Sian Mulholland told the BBC show “Good Morning Ulster,” adding that the violence had been live-streamed on social media and that rioters had been directed on “how to get around the police barricades.”
On Wednesday morning, signs and flags had appeared on some homes in the area of Ballymena where the assault and riots took place, stating the nationality of those inside.
“British household,” read one handwritten sign above a smashed window, while another home displayed a picture of the Philippines flag with the words: “Filipino lives here.”
Michelle O’Neill, the first minister of Northern Ireland, said in a statement on Wednesday that the “racist and sectarian attacks on families” were “abhorrent and must stop immediately.” She added: “No one, now or ever, should feel the need to place a sticker on their door to identify their ethnicity just to avoid being targeted.”
The police used a water cannon against crowds and fired plastic baton rounds in Ballymena, while unrest also took place in parts of Belfast and in the town of Carrickfergus. Earlier in the evening, protests had taken place in areas of Belfast, as well as in Lisburn, Coleraine and Newtownabbey.
The family of the victim of Saturday’s sexual assault said they did not condone the violence and appealed for people to let “justice be served in the correct manner,” through a statement released by Paul Frew, who represents the district covering Ballymena in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain condemned the violence, saying it was vital that the police “are given the time they need to investigate the incidents concerned, rather than face mindless attacks as they seek to bring peace and order to keep people safe.”
Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, who leads the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said the police were reviewing video footage and other evidence to identify rioters, and condemned what he called “hate-fueled acts and mob rule.”
“The mindless violence witnessed over the past two nights in Ballymena is deeply concerning and utterly unacceptable,” he added. “These criminal acts not only endanger lives but also risk undermining the ongoing criminal justice process in support of a victim who deserves truth, justice, and protection.”
A report published last month by the Committee on the Administration of Justice, an independent human rights group, analyzed seven incidents of anti-immigrant protests, social media activity, street activism and riots that have taken place in Northern Ireland since 2023. The report’s author concluded that a “disturbing pattern of locally driven racist and anti-immigrant activity in Northern Ireland” was being escalated by international extremists who were amplifying “fabricated narratives” on social media.
Dessie Donnelly, the author of the report, told The New York Times that some previous incidents had been sparked by criminal incidents involving migrants, while others “had all the hallmarks of made-up stories.”
“There is a deliberate strategy to build a narrative of incidents being perpetrated by the ‘other’ — the immigrant communities — against ‘our’ communities,” he said. “Suddenly a lot of the crime, like sexual offenses, attempted abductions of children, are all laid at the doorstep of this immigrant ‘other’ living in our community. Whether these incidents are true or false doesn’t really seem to matter online.”
Mr. Donnelly, who works for a Belfast-based technology research group, The Rabble Coop, said that police and government statistics showed that the “vast majority” of sex crimes in Northern Ireland were carried out by white men from the country, but that extremist messaging presenting migrants as a threat was “finding fertile ground.”
According to the most recent Northern Ireland census, 16 percent of Ballymena residents recorded a national identity outside British, Irish and Northern Irish groups in 2021, up from 10 percent at the previous census in 2011.
The largest nationality in the “other” group was Romanian in the most recent census, followed by Polish, Bulgarian and Slovakian.
Five people were arrested on suspicion of rioting in Ballymena on Tuesday night, while another suspect was arrested on suspicion of disorder in Newtownabbey.
The police are also investigating a Molotov cocktail attack in the village of Cullybackey, around three miles away from Ballymena, shortly after midnight on Tuesday.
A vehicle was set on fire and a nearby property, with a woman and two children inside, was damaged, in what investigators are treating as a racially motivated hate crime.
Content Source: www.nytimes.com