\u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we witnessed was not legitimate protest. It was organised, planned racist violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Director at Amnesty International UK\n <\/p>\n
Amnesty International has said that Northern Ireland faces a \u201cviolent racism problem\u201d and called for urgent political leadership and a credible anti-racism strategy following days of racist violence in Belfast.<\/p>\n
Speaking in advance of an anti-racism rally in front of Belfast City Hall today (Saturday), Amnesty International\u2019s Northern Ireland Director Patrick Corrigan said the attacks were not spontaneous disorder but part of a worsening pattern of organised racist violence.<\/p>\n
Patrick Corrigan said:<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us be clear about what happened this week. What we witnessed was not legitimate protest. It was organised, planned racist violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the third consecutive summer in which Northern Ireland has experienced organised racist violence. Each year it has become more coordinated and more dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, some political leaders have been willing to amplify fears about immigration instead of challenging deliberate misinformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolence does not begin with petrol bombs. It begins when people are told that their neighbours are a threat and when fear is exploited for political advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorthern Ireland does not have an immigration problem. It has a racism problem. A violent racism problem. And until we are prepared to say that honestly, we will never solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing those targeted by the violence, Patrick Corrigan said:<\/p>\n
\u201cTo every person in Belfast who is feeling frightened because of their ethnicity, religion, nationality or immigration status, I want to say this: you belong here. This city is your home. And you are not alone.”<\/p>\n
He called on political leaders to move beyond rhetoric and deliver meaningful action to tackle racism:<\/p>\n
\u201cSolidarity alone is not enough. We need political leaders to recognise that this problem has been years in the making and requires serious attention, including a Racial Equality Strategy worthy of the name, not more of the Executive\u2019s failed and discredited approach of the last ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c \u201cWhat we witnessed was not legitimate protest. It was organised, planned racist violence.\u201d Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-640097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}