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Today in Focus
On the ground in the Belfast riots
00:27:06
The Guardian reporter Hannah Al-Othman on the anti-immigrant rioting in Northern Ireland and the residents afraid for their lives
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This is the Guardian.
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Today under siege in Belfast. The immigrant communities fearing for their lives.
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Today. In Focus is supported by Paramount plus the agency. All episode streaming June 21st on Paramount. In the world of espionage, truth is a moving target and every decision carries a dangerous consequence. This new mission explores what it means to live as a double agent. Twice the lies, twice the risk. The lines between ally and enemy blur like never before.
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And.
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And survival depends on trusting no one. Starring Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner Smith and Richard Gere. Don't miss the Agency. All episode streaming June 21st on Paramount Plus.
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On Tuesday evening, Somaya and Stella, two housemates from Uganda, were at home in West Belfast when they heard some noise outside.
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They were in their house and basically they saw some of the violence beginning.
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The women are care workers, but they're also students. Somaya is studying adult health at a local college and Stella is doing an MBA at Ulster University. They told their story to Guardian reporter Hanna Al Othman.
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They said there were a group of men and boys.
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So it all started like people were just matching young boys between the age of 9 and 20. They were all putting on black and masks.
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They were all dressed in dark clothing. They had face coverings. And they noticed them start to gather near their flat and they initially hoped it would pass over fairly peacefully.
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It seemed like it was a peaceful demonstration to us.
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They knew what the protest was about. It was prompted by a horrific knife attack in the city on Monday which saw the victim lose an eye. A Sudanese refugee had been arrested and there was fear of riots after videos of the attack spread around the world. But still Stella and Sumayya were hoping that the men and boys outside their window weren't going to kick off.
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And then they then began to start trying to set fire to a bus. So they set fire to the tires of a bus and they were watching from inside the house.
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And then they collected the bins outside and then started also burning them. And then we were like, maybe it will not escalate.
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They were still watching and hoping, well, you know, maybe this is as bad as it'll get. But then they said around 7 o' clock they saw them approaching their house.
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Stella. Stella. Stella.
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So Maya's actually sent me some video.
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Oh, my God. They've started break houses. They've started breaking houses, like at around 7:38, that is when they started petrobraming the houses.
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They could see sort of flames from the neighboring houses sort of leaking up towards theirs.
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So when the smoke started, it was just coming Direct to our houses. So we called the police, we called the fire brigade.
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And then, you know, their house started being targeted. They started throwing bricks, I think they said stones or bricks or rocks at the window, breaking all the windows of the house.
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So the police kept us telling us, like, don't calm down. We know you can hear the breaking of the glasses. The smoke was too much in the house.
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So they had this mob outside attacking their home. They had smoke coming in through the letterbox, through the gaps in the door and they were told, don't leave. It's not safe for you to leave. Somaya actually passed out. She was so scared she fainted.
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It was fear, like, it was fear because I really knew they were going to burn the house because I saw our neighbors houses. Like they had burnt the houses. The smoke was actually coming into our house. Yes. So I think I blacked out because I couldn't believe it. Like, why? Like this is really happening.
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She was unconscious for around half an hour. Stella was on the phone to the emergency services. They were trying to tell her what to do. And one of the sort of most poignant things that they told me that really got to me was they were told by, I presume it was the 999 operator to go and put on their care uniform.
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So they told us to put on uniforms maybe in case these guys broke into the house, maybe the tags on the uniform.
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Because if these men break into your house, they may have some sympathy for you, they may maybe potentially view you differently if they realize that you're, you're a care worker.
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So, so, so terrifying. So I wasn't feeling well because I couldn't believe my eyes. Like it was too much, too much, too much.
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From the Guardian, I'm Helen Pitt. Today in focus on the ground in Belfast after a week of un. Hannah, thanks for being here. I know it's been a very, very hectic few days.
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Yeah, yeah, it has.
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And you've been in Belfast since the unrest there erupted on Tuesday. And we should say at the top of the episode that we're not going to be discussing in detail the attack itself because there are reporting restrictions in place to prevent prejudice to the criminal proceedings. But you went to Belfast on Tuesday after various far right figures encouraged people to take to the streets. Tommy Robinson posted on X calling for protest to what he called an invader attack. They were also encouraged by people like Elon Musk. And at the same time, wasn't There, there was WhatsApp messages circulating from anonymous accounts calling for men aged 18 and over in Northern Ireland to be prepared to fight or be arrested. Tell me, what was it like when you got there? What did you see on Tuesday night?
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So I arrived sort of late afternoon on Tuesday and at first it felt fairly quiet. So I got here and there wasn't really anything much going on. But then, you know, reports began to filter through that things were starting to happen. This could get pretty ugly. It's still very early on in the night. Behind me, we've seen kind of smoke in the area because protesters. So I went up to the Shankill Road, which is quite a loyalist area. Well, it's a very loyalist area in West Belfast. I found sort of say two to 300 people. It was quite an odd gathering at first because they. They recited the Lord's Prayer. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. And then there was sort of cheering and clapping and then basically they started marching off. And then basically where the march was heading to was to a house of a Romanian family who had been targeted twice before. And they started throwing fireworks through the letterbox. They started throwing bricks at the house. The window had clearly already been smashed in the past because it was boarded up, the downstairs window, but there were sort of smaller windows downstairs and upstairs. They were throwing bricks towards those. And the house had like a quite a cheap looking, but a security camera mounted on the front. So it was obvious that, you know, this house had been at Target before. We just saw this woman come to the window and look at, from an upstairs window at what was happening outside, which was this whole group of, you know, hundreds of men trying to break into a house. And then I heard a woman say, you know, there's wee girls in there.
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Gosh.
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And it was just a really horrible situation because you couldn't do anything. The police weren't there. There's one police car with two officers in. But they were sort of just, you know, they obviously felt they couldn't intervene, so they were just watching from a distance and you could see. And then eventually these men barged the door in and got into the house.
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And as I understand it, that Romanian family was ultimately taken to safety by a neighbour. But why would the rioters go to a house of a Romanian family when the guy who'd been arrested on suspicion of murder is a Sudanese national?
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They were targeting any immigrant families. It was Ugandan families, it was Sudanese families, it was Romanian families, it was Ukrainian families. So, you know, that was happening there. And then we sort of moved across the city and then There were wheelie bins set on fire, street furniture. So the police had obviously put up these big plastic roadblocks. They set fire to them. There were men walking around with sort of bottles of petrol in their hands. And then we got to east Belfast and then that was where the bus was on fire. More homes had been set on fire there. Another Romanian family, a Sudanese family. The fire brigade were there trying to bring those fires under control. The police had got into those houses and sort of evacuated people, but just all across Belfast. So we covered sort of west, north and east.
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It sounds really frightening. What do we know about the people who were rioting?
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My understanding is that it was mostly loyalists, so people from the Protestant side, some of them were wearing the colours, so things like, you know, Northern Ireland football shirts or Rangers. And again, it was in predominantly loyalist areas. They all seemed to know each other. We were told by some people living there that there's some of the Catholics who come to join, join in. We saw some of that online.
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We heard at the start of the episode from Stella and Samaya about how their street came under attack on Tuesday night. Houses were set on fire, their windows were smashed. Samaya passed out terrified at the angry mob outside. And when the women called 999, they were told to put on their care uniforms in the hope that if any of the rioters broke in, they might show them some mercy. No one was coming to help them escape until a local pastor heard what was happening. And you spoke to him at his
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church because I'm the pastor of one of the women who was attacked. She's a good Christian woman.
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Tell me about Pastor Jack McGee.
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He's 74, Jack McGee. He's obviously lived through the Troubles. He's seen riots on the streets in Belfast before. And he said, I didn't want to be out there, I didn't want to get involved.
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But then, because I know there's some of quite a number of our people in the church are from Africa and other places. I began the phone around after 10 o' clock just to check they were okay. And then I heard one of them, their house was attacked.
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So that moment got in his car and basically drove to their house to Samaya and Stella.
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When I got there, I mean, it was horrendous. Four fire engines, police officers and riot care. A crowd of guys standing masked up, bricks on her hands.
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He spoke to these men and said, you know, there's two women in there. Please just give me 10 minutes to get them out.
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So I had to go over and talk to them. And I pleaded with them.
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Religion runs deep here. And you know, they still had this respect for this church pastor. And he said, you know, when he was speaking to them, some of them dropped the bricks and they put them down. And he said they did allow him those 10 minutes. And he went in with the fire
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brigade and six fire officers had to literally carry her out of the house. Horrendously traumatized.
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And he got them into his car with him and his wife and took them to his house and put them up.
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And so you met Stella, Samira and Pastor McGee the next day at their church, the New Life City Church in Belfast. How were they the morning after?
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I think they were still quite shell shocked. They were still in the clothes from the night before. So, you know, they said this is what we'd left our home and we've got nothing, you know. So Maya said what had happened had changed her whole view of Belfast. And how has your experience of Belfast been so far until now?
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I've been okay. Like I really understand maybe there is that ratio differences, but I hadn't gotten into such. Like I managed them just like any other person. In a new country you expect all that, but then you have the positivity in you. Like everyone stays in their own lane. To me, it was a very peaceful place until yesterday. It really changed my mind.
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And she said they hadn't told family back home. So she said they wouldn't believe this would happen in what she described as a first world country, the United Kingdom. Said that her family just wouldn't believe it.
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We are not illegal migrants. We are not. We are here legally. We got visas, we paid money to come here. I am really dedicated to serving the community. That is it. And someone who is actually rioting doesn't know that the person they are targeting is actually looking after their mother or their granny. Meanwhile, I left my mother back home. Yeah, so I'm just. I'm just not happy.
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Said I'm potentially caring for their mum, for their granny. And I've left my own mother at home in Uganda to do that. And you know, she, she said maybe it's high time I go home.
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Just I, like, I felt like maybe I'm like I'm just giving up. Like maybe it's high time I go home.
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Clearly there were pockets of bravery and kindness. People like Pastor Jack McGee going into to rescue people like these women and sort of beyond him. Like, what was Belfast like on Wednesday? What was the atmosphere like? What were people telling you?
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So Belfast was completely dead On Wednesday, everything was shut, even in the city center. It was like a ghost town. The only place you could even get anything for dinner was in one of the hotels and then in the sort of more residential areas where I went out to. It was quite a strange atmosphere, and it really, you know, what people saying really depended on who you spoke to. So some people actually quite defiant. And in the Shankill Road area where the Romanian family had forced. Had been forced out, the neighbors were saying, well, we told them twice to leave. Their windows have been put through twice before, and they didn't go. So this was the last straw. And then.
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But why? What's the what? What's why?
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Well, the graffiti nearby potentially said it all. It said, local homes for local people.
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Well, so there was a feeling that immigrants were jumping the queue for social housing.
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Yeah. Or even for affordable privately rented housing. There was a sense that, you know, they were getting access to these houses in a way that white British people could not.
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And did you meet many people in Belfast who were appalled at what had happened?
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Yes, so. So many people were appalled by it. And, you know, this is a community that's lived through so much violence. You speak to older people, they've seen it all before. I spoke to one woman, and she said, you know, they've taken all my recycling. They've taken my wheelie bin. And she had two autistic children in the house, trying to explain to them, to her daughters what was happening and not being able to do that. And then obviously, there was also the shock and the disgust at seeing their neighbors targeted. So, you know, I think Sumayya said this. She said, just as immigrants committing crimes do not represent all immigrants, the people committing this violence do not represent all people living in Belfast.
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It's very generous of her to say that, isn't it, given what had just happened to her? And on Wednesday, the suspect appeared in court, and the family of the victim in the case, who's called Stephen Ogilvy, the family released a statement, didn't they? What did they say?
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Their statement was, you know, really powerful. They basically said, you know, not in his name. They condemned the violence. They called for it to stop.
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They said they were disgusted.
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They did. And they also sort of praised the contribution that immigrants make to. Well, I think they specifically referenced the care sector, which Stella and Somaya work in. They also said the hospitality industry, and they recognized that valuable contribution that immigrants make to society here. And they called for people not to participate in any further violence.
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Yeah, they said that peaceful protest is only Ever the way forward. And that came in pretty stark contrast to what various high profile politicians were saying after the attack. We had Zia Yousef, who's the Home affairs spokesman for Reform uk, talking about the treachery of governments who have allowed immigrants to come into the country. And then you had Rupert Lowe, who of course an ex Reform MP who now runs his own outfit called Restore Britain, which is hoping to disrupt the Makerfield by election next week, who tweeted after Zach Polanski had labelled his party extremists. He said, the real extremist position is to willingly import savage Third World animals who attempt to behead others in the street. Just my thoughts. And he's also called for the reintroduction of the death penalty to prevent attacks committed by what he called barbarians. What do you make of language like that?
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I mean, it's clearly not helpful when public authorities are doing their best to try to really keep a lid on any further disorder. So Keir Starmer, Prime Minister, has said it won't be tolerated.
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The acts of violence and arson that
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followed are totally unjustified. This morning I spoke with the First Minister in court, the judge also. It was a really unprecedented intervention. So he said, this hearing is now concluded in terms of the suspect. But then he said, I am aware of these messages circulating, encouraging men to gather and wear masks and dark clothing and participate in this violence. And I'm not sure I've ever heard a judge make a similar intervention. But he said, you know, you will go to prison and I want that message to get out loud and clear.
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So you had Starmer saying he wasn't going to tolerate violent disorder of this kind of. You had the family calling for calm, but those calls for calm weren't. Weren't really heeded, were they? Because what happened on Wednesday night?
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So on Wednesday night, we saw a more concentrated area of disorder, so it wasn't as widespread as the night before, but it was really, really serious. So a list had been circulating of HMOs that apparently house migrants. I've been told that not all of them.
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So these are houses of multiple occupancy that become a real bugbear. Haven't Restore and reform on the right? Yeah.
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Yes. There is one hotel that I'm told is still used to house migrants, asylum seekers. So there was an attempt to attack that, but the police had already closed off access to it. I was also told that some of the people staying there had also been moved in advance of that, but basically they'd attempted to get to this hotel. They hadn't been able to do that. So it turned into a huge standoff with the police. In a residential street, lines of riot
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police battled for hours to hold back a crowd which was trying to reach a hotel housing refugees. Just one of a number of addresses on a so called hit list circulated online of target locations linked to immigrants.
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So it was ripping up people's driveways to use the stones to throw up. Fireworks were thrown at police, they set fires in the street, water cannons were deployed. And again, one of the really poignant things I saw was sort of a small elderly woman. I couldn't see exactly how old she was, but I was told she was older. Sitting in a bus stop between the line of rioters and the water cannons and at one point when the water was sort of shooting in that direction, she just lifted up the hood of her puffer coat and I, I said to a woman, I said, why is she there? And she said she's lived through the trouble. She says she's not going to move.
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Coming up, the Sudanese family who barricaded themselves in their home as the violence raged outside.
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Foreign.
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When Jamal claimed asylum in the UK six years ago, he chose to settle in Belfast.
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Actually I I was considering the idea of going to England when I came here the first day in 2020, the first of Jan. I thought it's more safe for my family.
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He's from Sudan, a lawyer by training. He fled the Sudanese Civil War in 2020 with his wife and four children.
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I'm a father of four kids, two daughters and two sons. I never regretted staying here in Belfast.
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He's clearly very proud of the life he's built here.
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My daughter graduated from Queen's University. I'm practicing law now. My son graduated from Olester as an engineer. My youngest daughter is in year 10 in a grammar school, which is a very high class, you know, she's doing really great. My son is admitted to Alice University Civil Engineering this year.
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Wow, you've got four clever children.
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Yeah, yeah. So we achieved success.
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But after what's happened in Belfast this week, everything feels different. So different, in fact, that he didn't want us to share his real name.
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Actually, we were shocked when we heard the news. The incident wasn't far away from my house. It was more than half a mile.
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B
So this is where the man was attacked, was near your house?
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J
Yeah. And expected the unrest? I expected the reaction, to be honest.
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B
Why?
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Because the video was really provocating. I personally got very, very, very angry.
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On Tuesday evening, Jamal was in his office when his wife called in a panic.
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I received a phone from my wife telling me that things are not okay. We are getting under some kind of threat, so please come back, come back home from that time. We just went to the mall near our house and collect some foods because no one knew how long this will be going on. Actually our area, because it was the scene of the crime, things is not okay. Many of my friends here attacked by those guys and had their cars set on fire. Their houses were set on fire. Windows, glass is broken.
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B
That's terrifying.
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Yeah. Yeah. Really.
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B
So when you returned home to your wife and your four children, what was it like at home? Did you lock yourself in?
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Yeah, yeah, to be honest, I locked the doors and made sure that every door is locked and people keep away from windows and from main doors. So we kept just in one room and did my best to support my. Because I have a daughter, as I told you, 13 years. She got panicked by this.
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B
I'm sure she did, yeah. So the, you know, the unrest went on into the night. Were you able to get any sleep that night, you and your family?
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J
The first night? No.
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B
And did you explain to your daughter what was going on?
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J
Yeah, yeah, I told her that as usual. This will end true soon. Don't worry, don't worry. We are here. Police is here. So don't worry. Just you will be safe. She continue telling me that. Dad, please let us leave this country. Let us leave this country.
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B
So what are you, what are you going to do?
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J
We are considering the idea of leaving the region. No black and white plan, but initially we will move to England. From there we can leave the country. We don't know what comes next.
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B
How does it feel for you? Seriously having to think about leaving Belfast?
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J
You know, when you spend years in a place you belong to it in a way or another, you be part of it. We had a really, a really, really deep friendship and relationship with the locals and other communities. We felt through the last six years we belonged here and we start to build our life here. Unfortunately, we are not ready, of course, to sacrifice our lives. We fled Sudan and the atrocities committed. You must all know about it. This is why we are here. This is why we are here. Now we are back to square one. In a different way, of course, in a different way. But we are. We are under threat. Live threat.
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B
That's all for today. My thanks to Hannah Al Othman, to Sumayya, to Stella, to Pastor Jack and to Jamal. If you appreciated this episode, then perhaps you'd consider leaving us a review. We always enjoy hearing what you think of the show and it also helps other people to find us. This episode was produced by Saskia Colette and Guy Zafman and presented by me, Helen Pitt. Sound design was by Ross Burns and the executive producer was Sammy Kent. We're back in your feeds this afternoon with the latest.
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A
This is the Guardian.
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K
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