Photos: Second night of anti-immigrant riots in Northern Ireland town
Violence flared for a second night in a Northern Irish town after 'racially motivated' attacks following a peaceful protest over an alleged sexual assault.
Hundreds of protesters, many of them masked, took to the streets of Ballymena on Tuesday, throwing petrol bombs, bottles and masonry as police responded with water cannon.
There was a heavy police presence in one area of the town, about 30 miles (48km) northwest of Belfast, as protesters set fire to a car and barricades. Police also fired plastic baton rounds to disperse the crowds.
The unrest first erupted on Monday night after a vigil in a neighbourhood where an alleged sexual assault had happened on Saturday.
'This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,' Ryan Henderson, assistant chief constable, said on Tuesday. 'It was racist thuggery, pure and simple, and any attempt to justify it or explain it as something else is misplaced.'
Tensions in the town, which has a large migrant population, remained high throughout the day on Tuesday, as residents described the scenes as 'terrifying' and said those involved were targeting 'foreigners'.
'Last night, unfortunately, has probably scared a lot of people. We are actively working to identify those responsible and bring them to justice,' said Henderson.
Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court on Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said.
The trouble began when masked people 'broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties', police said.
Security forces also came under 'sustained attack' with petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks thrown by rioters, injuring 15 officers, including some who required hospital treatment, according to the force.
Four houses were damaged by fire, and windows and doors of homes and businesses were smashed.
Northern Ireland saw racism-fuelled disorder in August after similar riots in English towns and cities triggered by the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, northwest England.
'Ballymena has a large migrant population; a lot of people actually work in the town and provide excellent work,' said Mayor Jackson Minford.
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Al Jazeera
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Why have anti-immigration riots broken out in Northern Ireland?
Anti-immigration protests have escalated into clashes with police in several towns in Northern Ireland this week, marking a new wave of unrest to hit the United Kingdom. Disorder in towns across the region continued for a fourth night on Thursday. In Portadown, County Armagh, a crowd used bricks and masonry from a derelict building to throw at police. About 40 officers have been injured, and 15 arrests have been made. Protests began in Ballymena, a town of about 31,000 people located 40km (25 miles) northwest of the city of Belfast, on Monday when two Romanian 14-year-old boys were arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. The most intense violence took place on Tuesday in Ballymena, when hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set buildings and cars on fire. A smaller crowd threw rocks, fireworks and petrol bombs at police on Wednesday, as police officers responded with water cannon. Masked rioters also set fire to a leisure centre in Larne, about 30km (19 miles) away from Ballymena, on the coast, where some immigrant families had been given shelter following the unrest in Ballymena. Violence also spilled over to the cities of Belfast, Coleraine, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus, Antrim and Lisburn. Riots in Ballymena erupted after the Romanian teenagers appeared in Coleraine Magistrates' Court on Monday on sexual assault charges, which they denied. A Facebook post advertised a 'peaceful protest to show our anger at what cannot and will not be tolerated in this town'. The planned gathering began in Ballymena at 7:30pm (18:30 GMT). A crowd assembled at Clonavon Terrace in the town, where the alleged assault had taken place, and police officers presided over a largely peaceful demonstration. Police said several masked individuals later broke away from the group and began erecting barricades and attacking private properties housing immigrants. They also attacked police officers with smoke bombs, fireworks, bottles and bricks, leading to clashes which have continued for several days since. Some residents placed UK flags or signs in their windows reading 'British household' and 'locals live here' in a bid to avoid being targeted. Sky News reported seeing ethnic minority residents of the town 'packing up suitcases and leaving their homes'. One mother of two, Mika Kolev, told the BBC her home had been damaged by rioters on Tuesday night. She said she intended to leave her home with her family and is considering moving back to Bulgaria. 'This is my house, I pay rent,' she said. 'I feel like this is my country, this is my city. My daughter was born here. It's very scary.' The identity of the hundreds of people – many masked and hooded – who attacked immigrant households and businesses was not immediately clear. In the past, this sort of violence has usually taken place in towns like Ballymena, which are a stronghold of UK unionism. However, there were media reports that Catholics had also joined the protests this time. Northern Ireland endured decades of conflict between unionists – largely Protestants who want it to remain within the UK – and nationalists – primarily Catholics who wanted to reunite with the rest of Ireland. Paramilitary groups played a significant role in the sectarian conflict known as the Troubles, which lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement established a power-sharing arrangement. The agreement, however, has faced opposition from some unionist groups, and some grievances remain unresolved. 'Some working-class unionist areas feel as if they've lost out during the peace process,' sociologist John Nagle, who lectures at Queen's University in Belfast, told Al Jazeera. 'I think the sort of grievances about the peace process are being grafted onto the wider concerns about immigration.' The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said at this stage there was no evidence of unionist paramilitary involvement in the recent violence in the town. However, a report published last month by the independent human rights group Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) points to a connection. The study, titled Mapping Far Right Activity Online in Northern Ireland, analysed seven incidents of anti-immigrant protests that have taken place in Northern Ireland since 2023. Daniel Holder, the organisation's director, said the latest unrest followed a 'fairly familiar pattern'. 'What we noticed … is that they're all being called and taking place in areas where there is significant loyalist activity,' and are featuring a 'degree of paramilitary control', he told Al Jazeera. Holder also said such riots have mostly taken place during the summer, coinciding with the loyalist marching season, a tradition among Protestant and Loyalist communities that runs from Easter Monday to September. He struck a note of caution over accounts suggesting the involvement of Catholic nationalists in the unionist stronghold of Ballymena and said the notion of a broader 'coming together' of the two historic rivals was unlikely. Immigration appears to be the main concern for protesters. Since 2015, more than 1,800 Syrian refugees have been settled in Northern Ireland via the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, which was renamed the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme (NIRRS) in 2020. General immigration has been on the rise as well. Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Paul Frew told the BBC that tensions over this have been rising for some time in Ballymena and people were 'frightened about illegal immigration'. Anger about austerity policies – and the retraction of welfare programmes – since the global financial crisis of 2008 has compounded concerns about immigration. Grievances over poor housing conditions and housing shortages, in particular, have been used to scapegoat migrants and to favour a narrative of 'mass uncontrolled migration that simply is not factually true', Holder said. The CAJ report, he said, found no clear correlation between the areas where violence has flared up in Northern Ireland since 2023 and poverty rates or high immigration rates. 'When you look at the pattern of where attacks are taking place, they're not in the most deprived areas,' Holder said. 'What this points to is that attacks involve particular far-right elements, including some elements of loyalist paramilitary organisations, rather than this being tied to either migration levels or deprivation.' Official figures from the Northern Ireland Assembly show that it is the least diverse part of the UK, with 3.4 percent of the population identifying as part of a minority ethnic group, compared with 18.3 percent in England and Wales and 12.9 percent in Scotland. According to the most recent census data in 2021, immigration to Northern Ireland is relatively low, but it is rising. The percentage of the population born outside of the UK rose from 6.5 percent in 2011 to 8.6 percent in 2021. Some ministers have been accused of fanning the flames of unrest. Several ministers condemned the violence in strong terms. First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the 'racist and sectarian attacks on families' were 'abhorrent and must stop immediately'. Finance Minister John O'Dowd described the attackers as 'racist thugs', while Justice Minister Naomi Long said the violence was 'completely unjustified and unjustifiable'. Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, who leads the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said, 'Hate-fuelled acts and mob rule do nothing but tear at the fabric of our society.' On Thursday, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons rejected calls for him to resign over a social media post in which he revealed the location of the leisure centre in Larne that was later attacked. Tyler Hoey, a Democratic Unionist Party councillor and local representative, condemned the violence but also accused the UK government of taking 'busloads' of unvetted migrants to the area. Sociologist John Nagle, who lectures at Queen's University in Belfast, told Al Jazeera that several unionist politicians condemned the riots while repeating the unfounded claim that Ballymena had become 'a dumping ground' for migrants. 'Although the government has quickly come out to denounce the protests, to some extent that has been caveated by some politicians who are trying to use this as a way to highlight their opposition towards migration and refugees,' Nagle said. Sociologist Ruth McAreavey, who lectures at Newcastle University, said general surveys show that Northern Ireland has become more welcoming towards migrants over time and less likely to want to see reduced levels of immigration. The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey found that 94 percent of respondents in 2024 said they would be willing to accept a person from a minority ethnic group in their area, compared with only 53 percent who said they would feel comfortable in 2005. However, McAreavey said fast-paced demographic changes have taken place within a 'socially conservative place' as it navigates global economic upheavals, including the decline of its predominantly industrial economy, most notably in the shipbuilding and textile sectors. 'There is a level of discontent that people are taking to the streets,' McAreavey said, adding that this was compounded by austerity measures that rolled back the welfare state. 'The lack of those resources does not help for the incorporation of different social groups into society and to help achieve social cohesion,' she said. 'People feel they're not in control and things are happening to them, as opposed to a more natural, organic change.'
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Photos: Third night of anti-immigrant violence in Northern Ireland town
Hundreds of people gathered on the streets of Ballymena in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, facing police armed with riot shields and water cannon on the third night of disorder in the town. The crowds eventually dispersed without a repeat of the chaotic scenes from the previous two nights, when houses and businesses were torched and 32 police officers were injured. The violence erupted in the town after the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a teenage girl. The pair appeared Monday in court, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter. Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody, but areas attacked on Monday and Tuesday included neighbourhoods where Romanian migrants live. Ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive strongly condemned 'the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days'. Residents had been 'terrorised' and police injured, they said in Wednesday's joint statement, urging people to reject the 'divisive' agenda being pushed by a 'destructive' minority. In response to what they termed 'racist thuggery', police deployed riot officers with dogs and have asked forces in England and Wales for help quelling the unrest. On Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the unrest in Ballymena 'mindless violence'. About 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of the town, masked men set a leisure centre in Larne on fire, local media reported. The centre was temporarily sheltering people from Ballymena who had been evacuated. People living in Ballymena described 'terrifying' scenes in which attackers had targeted 'foreigners' over the previous days. Some people fixed signs to their houses indicating they were Filipino residents, or hung up British flags. Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Fein vice president, called the violence 'abhorrent'. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said in a statement that its officers 'came under sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks in their direction'. Some of the injured officers required hospital treatment. Police Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson on Tuesday denounced the violence as 'racist thuggery' and said it was 'clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police'.
