PROTESTS are being planned across Scotland this week in response to far-right rioting throughout England and Northern Ireland.
Demonstrations will be held in Scotland’s two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, on Saturday amid violence and chaos fuelled by anti-immigrant bigotry and online disinformation.
There are concerns far-right riots could spread to Scotland after thugs in many major English cities as well as Belfast took wrought havoc in UK streets in recent days.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has issued a statement condemning the violence – which included rioters settling alight a hotel used to house asylum seekers – while some countries have issued travel warnings about the UK.
Campaign group Stand Up To Racism has organised a number of protests and counter-protests across the UK.
Some planned for Wednesday come in response to reports far-right activists have urged their supporters to target immigration lawyers’ offices and hotels housing asylum seekers.
Further protests are planned for Saturday, with people urged to gather outside the Scottish Parliament in the capital at 11am.
Another is planned in George Square, Glasgow at the same time.
Riots began in the aftermath of the fatal stabbing of three children in Southport, near Liverpool, where eight other children and two adults were also seriously injured.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder and three counts of murder in relation to the attacks.
While he was born in Wales to Rwandan parents and has no known links with Islam, social media was filled with claims in the immediate aftermath of the attacks that he was an asylum seeker and a Muslim, triggering far-right, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant riots in Southport and beyond.
