Long defends police response to ‘challenging’ violence

Justice Minister Naomi Long has defended the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s response to a “challenging situation” during the violence in Belfast at the weekend.

However, she added that “if there are lessons to be learned, this must happen”.

The Alliance Party has called for the return of the Northern Ireland Assembly after violence erupted following an anti-immigration protest in Belfast.

Alliance has submitted a recall petition, which requires the support of 30 assembly members.

Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) have both said they will sign the petition, meaning the threshold of 30 signatures will be easily met.

It is thought assembly members could meet as early as Wednesday.

A number of businesses were attacked and set on fire on Saturday.

BBC News NI understands the first and deputy first ministers are holding a phone call with the PSNI chief Constable Jon Boutcher about Saturday’s violence in Belfast.

Some of the victims questioned the effectiveness of the policing operation after crowds involved in the city centre protest were able to move into streets in south Belfast where they attacked businesses.

The minister said the PSNI were very effective in stopping people making it to the Belfast Islamic Centre on University Road.

But she added that the violence which erupted at other sites was “sporadic” and “harder for police to keep on top of”.

“We cannot have further scenes like this on the streets of this city,” she added.

Mrs Long said a Stormont recall is important as “political leadership has to be given, and we are the people who should be giving that leadership”.

Four men, aged 53, 46, 38 and 34, have been charged with different offences linked to Saturday’s disorder and they are due in court on Monday.

Some Belfast business owners “have seen their entire livelihood wiped out in one night of sickening violence”, Mrs Long told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

Mrs Long said those responsible for the disorder had “instilled fear in our community” and had made people of colour afraid to leave their homes.

The Alliance leader accepted that some people had attended the protest because they had genuine concerns about immigration, but she accused others of being “intent on creating mayhem”.

Mrs Long added that Saturday’s scenes had caused “irreparable” damage to the city’s reputation and racially-motivated violence would make it more difficult to recruit overseas workers to staff the health service.

After the protest outside the city hall on Saturday, some anti-immigration protesters attempted to march to the Belfast Islamic Centre in south Belfast

Kashif Akram, a member of the executive committee for Belfast Islamic Centre, said the building itself was “well protected” but the community and shops in the area were “not safe at all”.

Mr Akram said the Islamic Centre has received an “unbelievable” amount of messages over the weekend.

“The fear in a lot of them: ‘Should we be opening up today, should we be going to work, should we be leaving home?’

“Especially in this day and age, for someone having a fear for their life, their livelihood, their income, it’s not acceptable.”

“Despite all the assurances from PSNI leadership in the run up to Saturday’s mobilisations of what looked like far-right thugs, they were simply allowed to run free on the streets of Belfast,” Mr Akram added.

“The inevitable outcome you’ve seen on the route – people were verbally abused, there was racist comments being made, people were physically attacked, you’ve seen the state of some of the shops.”

He said plans for an upcoming rally “needs to be stopped”.

“It’s organised crime, it’s racism and it needs to be nipped in the bud. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve felt fearful for my children leaving the house on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy themselves and it needs to be addressed.”

Northern Ireland generally has low rates of immigration.

This is illustrated by the 2021 census, which showed that less than 4% of the population had been born outside the UK or Ireland, and almost 97% of people described their ethnicity as white.

Annual movement of people is usually expressed as net migration: the difference between the number of people arriving (immigrants) and those leaving (emigrants).

In 1972, the worst year of the early Troubles, net emigration was almost 24,000 people.

The peak year for net immigration was 2007 when it reached almost 11,000 people.

The most recent figures are for 2022 and show net migration of 2,300 people.

Further analysis of that figure shows there was net emigration of 2,700 people to other parts of the UK, but net immigration of 5,000 people from the rest of the world.

Matthew O’Toole, from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), attended a counter-demonstration against the anti-immigration protest.

He said the violent scenes witnessed in Belfast “can’t be allowed to happen again”.

He described the attacks on south Belfast businesses as “a violation of a community that is proudly diverse”.

“To think that a group of people with nothing but hate on their minds were allowed to rampage through that area is profoundly upsetting and infuriating and we need to ensure nothing like that ever happens again,” he said.

The SDLP assembly member added: “People have felt for a long time that racially-motivated hate crime is not taken as seriously in Northern Ireland as it should be and that is profoundly concerning.”

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said the violence was “appalling”.

“It was quite clear there were people who were whipped up on social media, and this is on national social media I have to say, not just in Northern Ireland but right across the United Kingdom.”

Mr Beattie said some of the people involved had come out “spoiling for a fight”.

“They burnt businesses, they attacked people, they put lives in danger.”

The UUP leader said the police should not only track down those involved in the rioting, but they should also go after the people who “incited this violence”.

He added that society needs to have a “grown-up, adult conversation” about concerns about immigration, but he claimed those responsible for the rioting were not interested in having that discussion.

More than 150 people have been arrested after demonstrations organised by far-right groups descended into riots in UK towns and cities over the weekend.

There was unrest in Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool, as well as Belfast, with missiles thrown, shops looted and police attacked in some places. Other smaller demonstrations elsewhere did not turn violent.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to give police forces the government’s “full support” to take action against “extremists” attempting to “sow hate”.

In London, an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the weekend violence across the the UK has ended.