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UK: Residents still scarred by July 2024 racist riots
UK: Residents still scarred by July 2024 racist riots
(France 2)
A deadly attack during a children’s dance class by a teenager of foreign origin sparked racist riots in late July. In Middlesbrough, this episode has left its mark.
Streets ransacked, asylum seeker centres besieged and police officers overwhelmed by protesters who came to fight. In the summer of 2024, the United Kingdom was set ablaze by a series of anti-immigration riots of a violence not seen in more than ten years. They spread, in a few days, to around thirty cities.
In Middlesbrough, in the north-east of England, hooded people armed with bats smashed everything in their path, in a neighbourhood known to be inhabited by a foreign population. Others filtered traffic according to skin colour.
A month later, in the ravaged neighborhood, the wounds have not healed.We were very scared, we were panicking, we were crying, we couldn’t leave our house or get help,” says Rithvik Rao, who lives with his wife and daughter.
Since the end of the riots, their decision has been made: before the end of the year, they will return to India.This could all happen again and I feel like I have no support here.”his wife lamented. In the neighborhood, most residents are now on their guard, some barely daring to open their doors. Middlesbrough is the British city that, proportionally, welcomed the most foreigners in 2023.