Britain’s Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, has described two days of anti-immigration unrest in Northern Ireland as “racist thuggery” after police deployed water cannon for a second consecutive night to disperse rioters.
The violence followed a knife attack in Belfast for which a Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder. Rioters targeted ethnic minorities and foreign residents, setting homes and vehicles ablaze and clashing with police.
Benn said disorder on Wednesday night was less severe than on Tuesday, but many rioters attempted to reach a hotel outside Belfast that has previously housed asylum seekers.
Police used water cannon to push back crowds, while Reuters reporters at the scene saw what appeared to be plastic bullets, also known as baton rounds, on the streets. The Police Service of Northern Ireland declined to comment on their use.
Asked by Sky News whether the disturbances were racist riots rather than protests, Benn said: “Well, if you are targeting people on the basis of the colour of their skin, how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery.”
Police and political leaders said much of the unrest had been encouraged and coordinated online.
In recent days, lists identifying locations where asylum seekers were living have circulated online, while addresses linked to immigration-related businesses have also been shared. A nursing union official said ethnic minority nurses had been chased by masked men while travelling to work.
Kate Nicholl said police were patrolling neighbourhoods identified on what she described as a “hit list”.
Benn said the violence had created widespread fear among minority communities.
“It’s really difficult to convey the genuine sense of fear there is on the part of the ethnic minority community here in Northern Ireland as they’ve witnessed these scenes, reports of people being stopped in their cars to be asked what their nationality is, nurses going to work,” he said. “This is appalling.”
For many residents, the unrest has revived memories of the Troubles, the three-decade conflict involving mainly Catholic Irish nationalists and predominantly Protestant pro-British loyalists.
The knife attack in Belfast on Monday, which police are not currently treating as terrorism, comes during a period of heightened debate across the UK over crime and immigration.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has reposted messages on X criticising conditions in the UK following the Belfast incident, including posts from the leader of the Restore political party, which advocates large-scale deportations.
Northern Ireland has now experienced anti-immigration unrest for three consecutive summers. Over the past two nights, rioters have burned homes, smashed windows, thrown bricks at police and marched through streets calling for “foreigners out”.
“This kind of thuggery cannot continue,” Benn told Times Radio. “I only hope that the fact that we saw less disorder last night is because some people have reflected on the truly shocking scenes that we saw on Tuesday.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
