Local migrants ‘too terrified’ to speak out

LOCAL migrants are ‘too terrified’ to speak out about the anti-immigration riots that continue to engulf parts of the UK and Ireland, according to a woman who works with hundreds of them.

Mary Lafferty, who is the head of an organisation that supports refugees and asylum seekers in Fermanagh and Omagh, said she cannot find anybody who feels like speaking publicly about the chaos would not put them at risk of reprisals.

“Everybody is frightened to call out the utter ugliness that has played out over the last few weeks.

“Anybody I have approached has said that they are scared that speaking out would put them, their families and their business in danger,” said the chief of Empowering Refugees and Newcomers’ Organisation (ERANO).

The violence began when a number of anti-immigration rallies organised in the wake of the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, England, degenerated into violence.

There have also been outbursts of semi-orchestrated rioting in parts of the south, as a festering populist movement vies to make its presence felt.

“I was speaking with a number of people who said they wouldn’t let their children out of the house over the weekend.

“Even though the violence here has been been isolated to Belfast so far, people are worried it could spread.”

While Mary admitted that there are genuine concerns relating to immigration and the movement of people in and out of both the UK and Ireland, she characterises what has happening recently as ‘pure thuggery’.

“What we have seen has not been an expression of discontent, but, rather, a manifestation of hatred. Otherwise, how do you make sense of burning our people’s businesses and threatening them with violence?

“It has been a nothing more than a concerted effort to terrorise Muslims and strike fear in people of different ethnicities.

“They want to distort the wider public perception of the migrant crisis and fuel the fires of animosity.”

Mary said she wants to see a ‘strong action’ taken by political leaders.

“We all have a responsibility to stand together an reject hatred in all its forms. But there is particular onus on our government to take leadership, show unity, implement policies that protect our whole society, and take strong action against those who have orchestrated and participated in the violence over the last week.”