Anti-immigrant violence erupted in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, just northwest of Belfast, on Monday night, following a vigil over two 14-year-old boys, said to be of Romanian origin, who are alleged to have sexually assaulted a teenage girl. The riots broke out into spontaneous violence, with racially motivated attacks on unrelated immigrant households in the area. Videos have been spread on social media of men breaking into houses, setting them on fire, and shouting ‘Fuck the foreigners’ to a cheering mob outside.

On Tuesday, the riots escalated, with the targeting of the police and other immigrant groups. One of the groups attacked was the Filipino community. The father of one Filipino family gave an interview standing beside a burned-out house and car, which were attacked as his wife and two children were sleeping. Immigrants in the staunchly Protestant and Loyalist area have taken to displaying Union flags and red, white, and blue bunting in the hope that they will be spared.

On Wednesday, in what is a third night of unrest, the violence – which has also seen 32 police officers injured, after being bombarded with petrol bombs, bricks and fireworks – spread to Larne and Coleraine, further noted loyalist enclaves. In Larne, just north of Belfast, masked youths smashed the windows of a leisure centre used to house those in urgent need of shelter following disturbances in Ballymena earlier in the week. They then proceeded to start fires in the lobby. In Coleraine, a number of bins were set alight on railway lines close to Coleraine railway station.

These riots follow a 5,000-person anti-immigration protest in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland, in April and come less than a year after the race riots spread from England to Northern Ireland last summer, following the murder of a number of young girls attending a Taylor Swift dance class by the son of Rwandan asylum seekers. Migrant communities in many parts of the world feel increasingly unsafe and demonised, the target of not only political leaders such as Donald Trump, but also their neighbours and others facing the brunt of economic stagnation and decline.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/they-threatened-to-kill-us-it-was-terrifying-victims-targeted-in-ballymena-racist-attacks-tell-of-horror/a875754862.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/6/12/n-ireland-hit-by-third-night-of-racist-violence-main-flashpoint-calmer

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/i-dont-feel-safe-here-anymore-ballymena-residents-question-future-after-race-riots-5XYZ3ULOG5EKXAPQVVCTOOAIXM/