Homes of three Romanian families vandalized during anti-immigration protests in Northern Ireland
Anti-immigration protests took place in Northern Ireland, a territory part of the United Kingdom, on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 9 and 10, after the stabbing attack by a Sudanese man in Belfast. The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the homes of three Romanian families were vandalized during the protests.
The protests first erupted after a 30-year-old man of Sudanese origin, Hadi Alodid, was charged with attempted murder. The victim, Stephen Ogilvie, suffered serious injuries to his eye, neck, and back, and lost sight in one eye. The incident was filmed, and the footage spread rapidly on social media, according to NPR.
The attack on Stephen Ogilvie was widely circulated online and used to inflame anti-immigrant hatred. It also follows another case, that of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old who died earlier this month in Southampton while handcuffed, repeatedly telling police he had been stabbed by a British Sikh man and couldn’t breathe.
Ogilvie’s family strongly condemned the violence in Northern Ireland and called for an end to the spread of false information on social media. Nevertheless, the riots spread to several towns, and far-right activists continued to mobilize people for new demonstrations against immigration.
On Wednesday, police used water cannons to disperse a crowd of approximately 300 people who threw bricks and petrol bombs at officers before setting numerous cars on fire. Protesters with covered faces erected barricades using tires, furniture, and garbage bins and attempted to enter a hotel housing immigrants. Several homes, cars, and a bus were set on fire in Belfast, and some families were forced to leave their homes. Among them were three Romanian families.
According to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “representatives of the consular office are in contact with three families of Romanian citizens whose homes were vandalized following the events of the night of June 9, 2026. The Romanian citizens are currently safe and have expressed their intention to return to Romania as soon as possible. According to the information currently available, no Romanian citizens were reported injured as a result of the events in Belfast.”
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, a Romanian restaurant that was about to open soon in the town of Portadown, about 50 km southwest of Belfast, was attacked, according to a local source who spoke to RFI Romania on condition of anonymity. The Romanian community in the province is around 23,000 strong.
Politicians from both parts of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government condemned the violence. British prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the stabbing attack as "sickening," but said violence against people based on their background would not be tolerated.
Protests also took place last evening in other areas of Northern Ireland, but they were generally calmer than the violence recorded in Belfast.
The violence also sparked a conversation about the open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland. Allowing the free flow of people between the two territories was a major pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence between Irish Republican and British Loyalist militants and UK security forces.
(Photo source: Marco Scisetti|Dreamstime.com)
