Northern Ireland gets police reinforcement from Scotland to combat anti-Muslim gangs – DNyuz

BELFAST – Northern Ireland’s police chief confirmed on Thursday that 120 police reinforcements are being sent from Scotland to help quell racist attacks on Muslims after four nights of violence, mainly in Protestant Unionist areas.

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher confirmed the move at Stormont Castle after a meeting with leaders of the Northern Ireland Community Government. Alongside the most senior police officer, First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the Democratic Unionists sought to project a joint message of support for law and order and condemnation of the rioters.

But their show of unity was immediately undermined in the neighbouring Northern Ireland Assembly, where an emergency debate exposed the divide between most parties and the Democratic Unionists. Northern Ireland’s main pro-British party attempted to amend the assembly’s anti-racism motion by inserting a clause defending the right to protest against immigration.

Their amendment was defeated by a vote of 28-43, angering moderate unionists and Irish nationalists who wanted to focus on condemning the racist gangs, not making excuses for them.

The latest division at Stormont reflects the curious reality of immigration in Northern Ireland, which remains deeply divided along Catholic and Protestant lines, particularly in Belfast, where decades-old concrete and steel “peace borders” divide neighbouring communities into hostile sectarian camps.

When immigrants and asylum seekers look for housing in Belfast, they struggle to find homes in the rapidly growing Catholic neighbourhoods, where waiting lists for social housing are longer and the neighbourhoods are already overcrowded.

They prefer to occupy themselves in the more sparsely populated Protestant part of the divide – particularly in the most impoverished districts dominated by one of two “loyalist” gangs, the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force. Their ranks include neo-Nazis and others committed to “white power” causes.

‘backwards’

Police and politicians say members of both banned groups helped foment the violence that began Saturday night with a march that was blocked by police before it could reach its planned destination, the Belfast Islamic Centre. Instead, the protesters dispersed to burn down immigrant businesses and vandalize and break into immigrant homes. At least one immigrant remains in hospital, days after a mob repeatedly stamped on his head.

The wave of intimidation has left many Asian, Arab and African residents afraid to leave their homes or go to work, where they play a disproportionately large role in maintaining Northern Ireland’s health and care services.

Politicians from the Alliance Party, the moderate Ulster Unionists and the two Irish nationalist parties, Sinn Féin and the SDLP, took turns in confronting the rioters on Thursday, urging that Belfast should become more multicultural and open to foreign influences.

However, Democratic Unionist Party lawmakers stressed that they believe such violence inevitably, but unfortunately, stems from too much immigration.

DUP leader Jonathan Buckley said the riots had been “counterproductive to the crucial discussions we need to be having about our country’s immigration policy.”

To groans from the entire House, Buckley blamed “large-scale, uncontrolled immigration over a long period” for “additional pressure on public services such as housing, school places and council services.”

He added: “It is better that I say it here than that people outside this place express it in a violent way, which is unacceptable.”

The least diverse country in the UK

Others criticised the DUP’s message on a day when leaders of Northern Ireland’s tiny Muslim community were invited to sit in the visitors’ gallery. They noted that Northern Ireland remains the least diverse corner of the UK, with a population that is more than 96 per cent white.

Claire Sugden, a Liberal trade unionist who sits as an independent, addressed a group of Muslim visitors in the gallery above.

“To those who have been targeted, I am so sorry that living here has left you feeling scared, intimidated and unsafe. I am ashamed,” she said.

Referring to the criminal practices of the UDA and UVF, she criticised hardline unionists for trying to “justify the behaviour” of militants who in turn encouraged young people in unionist areas to threaten immigrants and clash with police. “It is your community they are exploiting and your children they are manipulating.”

And Alliance’s Kate Nicholl, who came to Belfast as a white refugee from Zimbabwe at the age of 12, became emotional as she criticised unionists who were prepared to defend the “legitimate concerns” of gangs and rioters. She said it was “disgraceful” that they were blaming the relatively small immigrant community for wider problems with housing stock.

“We are here for racist crime, Islamophobia. We will talk about housing again. Please do not confuse them. It is negligent to do that. It is dangerous to do that,” she said.

Boutcher, the police chief, tried to reassure Muslim leaders by gathering imams from every mosque in Northern Ireland and promising to identify and prosecute every rioter. He noted that 16 had already been arrested and 11 charged, with a detailed review of police and closed-circuit video footage now beginning.

But Boutcher, a veteran British police officer who was appointed to Belfast in October, said his force was seriously understaffed and “exhausted”, with more street fighting likely to have to be managed on the fringes of Protestant parades this weekend.

“We can no longer stand alone in dealing with this kind of disorder. We need support,” he said, confirming that Police Scotland had agreed to deploy four public order units with 120 officers in Belfast from Tuesday.

Boutcher said immigrants “are feeling a fear that I have not seen in over 40 years of policing. … This has to stop and we will stop it.”

The story Northern Ireland gets police reinforcements from Scotland to combat anti-Muslim gangs first appeared on Politico.