Britain Riot: the Chronology Behind UK's Far-Right Violent Vendetta Against Immigrant
Translator
Editor
8 August 2024 22:28 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Far-right, anti-immigrant riots, have erupted in several cities across the UK over the past week. The Britain riot is the worst social unrest in 13 years.
Protesters have attacked hotels sheltering asylum seekers and mosques, causing widespread destruction, and clashing with police officers.
Why did the riots break out?
The riots first broke out last Tuesday, July 30, 2024, after three young girls were killed and five other children critically injured in a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-inspired dance class in the seaside town of Southport, north-west England.
Where are the riots taking place?
More than 50 police officers were injured in the initial clashes, which allegedly targeted a mosque a short walk from the scene of the riots.
The following day, the riots spread to London, Manchester in north-west England, Hartlepool in the north-east, and Aldershot in the south. The unrest continued over the weekend with clashes on Saturday across England in Liverpool, Blackpool, Hull, Stoke-on-Trent, Leeds, Nottingham, and Bristol, as well as in Belfast in Northern Ireland.
On Sunday, August 4, 2024, rioters attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham and attacked police officers.
Then, in Tamworth, Staffordshire, a similar incident occurred at a Holiday Inn Express hotel, where reports suggest asylum seekers were also being housed, with fires, windows smashed and petrol bombs thrown at officers. In the northeastern town of Middlesbrough, rioters smashed windows of houses and cars and threw objects at officers.
Who was the actual suspect in the Southport stabbing?
Before the suspect's identity was confirmed, false rumors quickly spread online that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.
Far-right groups used the narrative to stoke tensions between communities and spread Islamophobic sentiment, leading to attacks on immigrants.
The suspect in the stabbing has now been identified as Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old boy born in the Welsh capital, Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
How did the country react?
“The tensions have clearly been fuelled by social media, which has been simply dishonest in the way in which it has represented the circumstances around the knife attack last week,” said Bruce Wilson, director of the RMIT University’s European Union Centre of Excellence., as quoted by CNA.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, August 5, 2024, vowed swift criminal sanctions for violent protesters, seeking to defuse days of anti-immigration unrest involving far-right agitators.
Starmer also announced a new standing force of specially trained police officers to support local forces, after an emergency meeting with ministers and police chiefs to deal with the unrest.
CNA | THE GUARDIAN
Editor’s Choice: Anti-racism Protests Sweep Britain after Far-right Riots
Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
