00:00Mark Devonport is the former political editor at BBC Northern Ireland.
00:04What we've seen in the last few days has been some scenes that have been reminiscent of those troubles that
00:12we have,
00:13but whereby those who are being targeted are from elsewhere.
00:16Migrants who've come here from Africa and Asia, who are a very small part of the population.
00:21They've been growing in number since we got peace at the start of the century here,
00:26but they are being targeted by some of these rioters who are angry about a horrific attack which took place,
00:35which has seen a Sudanese citizen being charged with attempted murder.
00:39And whilst everybody is rightfully shocked by that stabbing which took place,
00:44people who have got nothing to do with it are now being blamed and targeted in their own homes.
00:50As you say, a man has been charged. Is this now the end of it, do you believe,
00:55or are there risks of further protests?
01:00Sadly, I think there probably are risks of further protests,
01:04and certainly the shops in Belfast are closing early and transport services are closing,
01:11so they are fearful, I think, that there could still be some more disorder.
01:15Hopefully the police will be able to get the streets under control.
01:19They've asked for reinforcements from elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
01:22But there's still quite a lot of anger about it.
01:25There's still a lot of activity on social media calling for further protests.
01:29So we may not have seen the end of it yet.
01:32How significant, would you say, is the role of social media in this?
01:39I think it has played a part because you have to remember that one of the reasons people were so
01:44shocked by this attack
01:45was that quite a bit of it was filmed on camera and then shared across social media.
01:51And it's not only been shared here within Northern Ireland,
01:54but also internationally with people like Elon Musk retweeting posts in relation to it.
02:00So I think that probably explains to some extent why you've seen some trouble,
02:05not just in Northern Ireland, but also in Scotland and in England.
02:10And I think that's part of a trend whereby there has been concern about migration.
02:15When an incident happens, sometimes you see disorder and racist violence
02:19of the kind that we've seen just last night in Belfast.
02:23Northern Ireland, of course, has seen a lot of violent unrest over the decades.
02:27Is this different?
02:29Well, it is different in the sense that the people who are being targeted are a smaller part of the
02:35community,
02:36maybe only 3% of the overall population here.
02:39They're very vulnerable.
02:41Whilst there are some who have come here to seek asylum,
02:44the vast majority are carrying out vital work in our health service and in other sectors of our industry.
02:51So that has led a new edge to it.
02:54Also, we've seen really in the most recent violence,
02:59more activity on one side of the community here, the pro-British Protestant community,
03:03more disorder there than on the other side for various historical reasons.
03:08But certainly the family of the man who was seriously injured in the attack,
03:12which sparked all of this off, are calling for no more disorder
03:15and stressing that they want people, if they do want to protest, to keep it peaceful.
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