{"id":10285,"date":"2025-06-13T03:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10285"},"modified":"2025-06-13T03:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:04:07","slug":"migrants-flee-n-ireland-unrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=10285","title":{"rendered":"Migrants flee N Ireland unrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Foreign nationals hid in wardrobes and attics to escape a wave of unrest which has rocked a Northern Ireland town, police said Thursday, calling for the protests to end and warning rioters they would face arrest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Stop this violence,&#8221; said Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher. &#8220;We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was speaking after three nights of unrest in the town of Ballymena, some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northwest of Belfast.<\/p>\n<p>The clashes erupted on Monday night after two teenagers were arrested for the alleged attempted rape of a young girl at the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody and had asked for a Romanian interpreter in court.<\/p>\n<p>After another barrage of petrol bombs, bricks and bottles, the crowds eventually dispersed late Wednesday without a repeat of the chaotic scenes seen on Monday and Tuesday when houses and businesses in areas where Romanian families live were torched.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 13 people have now been arrested, and 41 police officers injured, though most of the injuries are not severe.<\/p>\n<p>Three teenage boys aged 15, 17 and 18 were due to appear in court on Thursday having been charged with rioting, said police.<\/p>\n<p>Boutcher described the riots as &#8220;wanton, disgraceful criminal behaviour that is absolutely race motivated&#8221;, speaking at a news conference Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Police had helped evacuate foreign national families hiding in attics and wardrobes in their homes &#8220;even though they had done nothing wrong&#8221;, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are not criminals. They contribute positively to society here and are well integrated,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Clonavon Road, where most of the riots happened in a neighbourhood known for having a large population of eastern Europeans, was almost deserted on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the houses were damaged, and British, English or Northern Irish flags hung from most windows, AFP reporters saw. Some had signs saying they were Filipino residents.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foreign nationals hid in wardrobes and attics to escape a wave of unrest which has rocked a Northern Ireland town, police said Thursday, calling for the protests to end and warning rioters they would face arrest. &#8220;Stop this violence,&#8221; said Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher. &#8220;We will come after you. We will arrest you. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}