By Sachin Ravikumar and Kate Holton
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) – The British government has increased its prison capacity to help tackle violent, week-long anti-immigrant riots that have prompted a growing number of countries to warn their citizens about the dangers of travelling in Britain.
Riots across a number of towns and cities have erupted following the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event in Southport, a seaside town in northern England, after false messaging on social media wrongly identified the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant.
The Justice department, which is being forced to release some prisoners early as it battles a jail overcrowding crisis, said nearly 600 prison places had been secured to accommodate those engaged in violence.
About 400 people have been arrested so far.
“My message to anyone who chooses to take part in this violence and thuggery is simple: the police, courts and prisons stand ready and you will face the consequences of your appalling acts,” Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
The unrest has prompted India, Australia, Nigeria and other countries to warn their citizens to stay vigilant.
Riva Peacock, a 22-year-old retail worker in Liverpool, where rioters clashed with police over the weekend, said the violence was shocking.
“There are a lot of people that blame immigrants for the state of this country,” she told Reuters. “It’s just a real shame that some of the most vulnerable people in our society have been used as a scapegoat for these issues.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed a reckoning to those who have attacked Mosques and hotels holding migrants, hurled bricks at the police and counter protesters, and looted shops and burnt cars.
Police on Tuesday charged a 28-year-old man with stirring up racial hatred over Facebook (NASDAQ:) posts linked to the disorder. A 14-year-old pleaded guilty to violent disorder.
On Monday night trouble flared in Plymouth, southern England, and again in Belfast in Northern Ireland, where hundreds of rioters threw petrol bombs and heavy masonry at officers, and set a police Land Rover on fire.
A message online says immigration centres and law firms aiding migrants would be targeted on Wednesday.
WIDESPREAD VIOLENCE
In the first widespread outbreak of violence in Britain for 13 years, hundreds of men, some women and children have attacked hotels housing asylum-seekers from Africa and the Middle East, chanting “get them out” and “stop the boats,” in reference to asylum seekers arriving in southern England on small dinghies.
They have also pelted mosques with rocks, unverified videos online have shown some ethnic minorities being beaten up and one man photographed at a protest in Sunderland on Friday had a swastika tattooed on his back.
In Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, videos online on Monday evening showed a group of Asian men gathering with Palestinian flags after reports that anti-migrant protesters may target the area.
Reporters on the scene said they were met with hostility and videos appeared to show one white man being attacked in a pub.
The prospect of clashes between white and ethnic minority groups revived memories of race riots that broke out in Oldham and other northern English towns in 2001 – which an official report later attributed to a lack of social cohesion, with two communities living parallel lives.
The government has said riots in recent days were not a proportionate response to concerns about immigration, but violence whipped up by far-right agitators and supported by football hooligans and young people.