Each evening after sunset the vigilantes gather near CS Lewis Square to rove the streets with a sense of swagger and a grandiose title: Belfast Nightwatch First Division.
The group, typically numbering a dozen members, seeks out dark-skinned males and challenges them to produce identity documents and explanations for their presence in the east of the city.
“Hey boy, I don’t want to catch you around our parks any more,” one member recently told a black man sitting on a riverside bench.
Unsatisfactory responses elicit warnings to leave Belfast or face consequences. Some interrogations are filmed and uploaded to social media, often with a rap or rock music soundtrack, and greeted with praise by followers.
It is the latest front in a campaign of intimidation against immigrants, refugees and people of colour that has driven families from homes and prompted many to consider leaving Northern Ireland.
“It’s worse than ever now. Everyone is scared,” said Mohammed Idris, 51, a Sudanese refugee who lost his shop to a riot last year. “You don’t know exactly what will happen the next day. I don’t think I see a future here.”
Another shopkeeper, who gave his name only as Mo, said racist abuse had become normalised. “A few days ago a guy came up to me and said: ‘Get the fuck back to your country.’ He insulted everyone on the street and slapped a guy.”
Anti-immigrant riots in England last August inspired copycat eruptions in Belfast and further emboldened a campaign of thuggery that has spread across Northern Ireland in recent years.
Families from Africa – many employed in healthcare – have had windows smashed and cars burned in towns across County Antrim. In June mobs targeted the homes of Roma people in Ballymena, forcing hundreds to flee. This week youths in the Donegall Pass area of south Belfast threw bottles, cans and water balloons at members of ethnic minorities and other targets.
The most high-profile threat, for now, is in the loyalist, Protestant part of east Belfast where vigilantes rove the Newtownards Road and nearby areas to confront foreign-looking men. Or, as their Facebook page puts it: “Concerned parents … working together, patrolling Belfast streets, for the safety and protection of our children and vulnerable people.”
It is an Orwellian claim. Almost half of those who were arrested for race hate disorder in Belfast last summer had previously been reported to police for domestic abuse.
Misinformation driven by social media depicts immigrants as predators who lurk around playgrounds, surveil women and creep around estates trying door handles.
“You try to build trust in the community but you find that after years you’re still a stranger,” said Idris. He has opened a new shop to replace the destroyed one but is considering leaving Northern Ireland.
So are Mohammed, Sherif and Adel, software engineers from Egypt who moved to Belfast with their wives and children several years ago to work in the city’s booming tech sector. Intimidation has become more brazen and frequent, they said.
Since April the three men have experienced the same phenomenon: a small group of people approach them in a public space, usually a street or park, and film and follow them. If the engineers retreat to their cars the pursuers – sometimes shouting insults, sometimes silent – film and photograph their numberplates.
“Each time we report it to the police because maybe these people will make up stories about us and say we were doing something wrong,” said Sherif. “We’ve stopped going out after 9pm. We used to feel that Northern Ireland was home but these days, no longer. Feeling safe is the most important thing. If you don’t feel safe, you don’t stay.” All three said they planned to return to Egypt.
Kashif Akram, a board member of the Belfast Islamic Centre, which was attacked in June, said immigrants were being scapegoated for economic and social problems. “This all stems from one thing, which is hate.”
Akram said politicians who condemn race attacks while citing housing shortages were sending mixed signals. “The two issues are separate.”
He hopes a race and ethnicity action plan launched by the police will help to punish and deter aggression. Police monitor the vigilantes and officers arrested a 37-year-old on suspicion of assault, theft and causing criminal damage. A vigil by his supporters was addressed by a self-styled citizen journalist with armed robbery convictions, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The vigilantes have divided opinion in east Belfast.
Some residents expressed shame. “It’s horrendous. Pure racism,” said a 34-year-old woman who withheld her name. “That these guys are claiming to protect women is beyond ironic.”
The owner of a shop that sells loyalist bunting, in contrast, endorsed the nocturnal patrols. “They’re not vigilantes, they’re protectors of the community. They’re trying to keep people safe. One of them has a walking frame – how can he be a vigilante?”
Rosemary Jenkinson, a writer who lives in the area, said foreigners were still settling in east Belfast and noted that last month dozens of immigrants attended a loyalist bonfire that celebrated Protestant culture. “It’s a positive sign.”
Sidharth Sreekumar, a 32-year-old civil servant of Indian heritage, said he enjoys living in east Belfast, though he acknowledged he had two advantages. “I’m English and I’m 6ft 3in. I think people would think twice about messing with me.”
