Belfast, United Kingdom. Britain’s Northern Ireland minister Hilary Benn on Thursday condemned two days of anti-immigration violence as “racist thuggery” after police deployed water cannon for a second night to tackle rioters.
Benn said disorder in Belfast on Wednesday night was less severe than on Tuesday, when rioters torched homes and vehicles and targeted ethnic minorities following a knife attack for which a Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder.
Government condemnation
Asked on Sky News whether the violent scenes were racist riots rather than protests, Benn said: “Well, if you are targeting people on the basis of the color of their skin, how else can you describe them? That is racist thuggery.”
Police response
Police used water cannon on Wednesday as they responded to a second night of unrest. Benn said many of those who clashed with police were trying to reach a hotel outside Belfast that has previously been targeted for housing asylum seekers.
Impact on communities
Benn said the violence had caused deep trauma in Northern Ireland and described widespread fear among ethnic 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. This is appalling.”
