UK riots and travel advisories

Britain was in recent weeks convulsed by violence resulting from the behaviour of protesters waging a xenophobic cause. The riots were so unhinged that the Nigerian government had to issue a travel advisory to Nigerian citizens going to, or resident in the United Kingdom – a stinging role swap with a country that has been in the habit of periodically issuing travel alerts to her own citizens about Nigeria.

Over the past couple of weeks, crowds spouting anti-immigrant slogans stood up to law enforcement personnel in one of the UK’s worst violence in more than a decade, leading  to arrest of hundreds of rioters who hurled bricks and other projectiles at the police, looted shops and attacked hotels housing asylum-seekers. The unrest was allegedly instigated by far-right agitators who used the social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls aged between six and nine years penultimate Monday at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, a coastal town north of Liverpool in northwest England. Eight other children and two adults were injured in the attack. Agitators circulated claims online that the stabbing suspect was a Muslim and an asylum-seeker, stoking anger among some Britons who falsely believe immigration is to blame for most deadly crimes in their country.

But the attack suspect was neither an asylum-seeker nor Muslim. And the British police moved to debunk the circulating misinformation because the suspect they arrested was a 17-year-old named Alex Rudakubana, whose parents are of Rwandan origin but who was born in Wales and had moved to Southport area since 2013. Efforts by the police to set the records straight fell flat, however. On the day after the killings as Southport community members gathered to comfort one another and lay wreaths, hundreds of protesters attacked a local mosque with bricks, bottles and rocks under suspected instigation by Islamophobic groups. Few days later, British authorities took the unusual step of disclosing the identity of the underage suspect – all in a bid to squelch the rumour fuelling the violence. They also announced that the suspect had been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. Only that those disclosures did little to pacify the xenophobic rage.

Whereas attempts by British authorities to rightly inform were to no avail, far-right disinformation swirled and inflamed anti-migrant sentiments as rioting spread to other cities and towns in the UK. Reports said among the worst incidents of violence was recorded early last week when hundreds of rioters stormed a hotel housing asylum-seekers in Rotherham, outside of Birmingham. The British government has a policy by which it keeps in hotels asylum-seekers – many of them illegal immigrants who had entered the country from France by crossing the English Channel in inflatable boats – while their application is being processed. It was one of such hotels rioters attacked in Rotherham. During the encounter, police personnel in riot gear were pelted with bricks and chairs as they tried to defend the hotel from attackers, who kicked in windows and pushed a burning wheelie bin into the building to burn it down. Few hours later on same day, a mob attacked another hotel housing immigrants some 112 kilometres to the south.

The riots marked an early litmus test for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer who took office only on 5th July – barely three weeks before the outbreak of violence. He deplored the hate mongering and vowed to bring the full force of the law to bear on rioters. “I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he said early last week, adding: “This is not protest. It is organised, violent thuggery.”  Starmer was chief prosecutor for England and Wales during the last major outbreak of riots in 2011, and his new Labour government was swift in delivering arrowheads of the rots to justice as he reassured that communities would be kept safe and perpetrators of violence harshly punished. He also announced plans to raise a “standing army” of specialist police to deal with rioting in the UK, and pledged to improve communication and cooperation among the country’s law enforcement agencies amidst indications that mobs were travelling across towns to stir up trouble. 

Officials of the Labour government have since unveiled a policy to prosecute people who post or repost materials that incite racial hatred on social media platforms.

Starmer came up against criticisms by segments of the British political elite and a wider class of influencers, though. While the main (Tory) opposition was critical of the rioters and supportive of the Labour government’s hard hand in dealing with them, right-wing populist Reform UK party leader, Nigel Farage, accused the government of subjecting the rioters to “two-tier policing” and treating them more harshly than other protesters – Black Lives Matter protesters, for instance. 

“UK riots: Sometimes you can’t avoid the conclusion that travel advisories are a diplomatic witch-hunt targeted at certain countries.”

It didn’t help matters that American social media proprietor, Elon Musk, constituted himself into an agitator-in-chief in British affairs. The owner of X (formerly Twitter) commented last week that “civil war is inevitable” in response to a post blaming the violent demonstrations on effects of mass migration and open borders. When the UK government took exception to his comment, the billionaire who touts himself as free speech absolutist doubled down, labelling the British premier as #TwoTierKier – apparently referencing Farage’s allegation. He also likened Britain to the defunct Soviet Union for attempting to restrict offensive speech on social media.

With the roiling crisis, the Nigerian government, early last week, issued a travel alert to citizens over the UK riots. It was payback time – intended or not – for the UK that had often issued travel alerts to its own citizens on real and suspected threats of violence in Nigeria, and indeed issued such advisory concerning the ‘hunger protests’ that began across some states of this country from 1st August. The advisory from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned of “increased risk of violence and disorder” in the UK occasioned by riots stemming from the Southport killings. It further counselled in a statement: “The violence has assumed dangerous proportions as evidenced by reported attacks on law enforcement agents and damage to infrastructure. To this end, citizens are advised to be extra vigilant and take measures as follows: Avoid political processions and protests, rallies or marches. Avoid crowded areas and large gatherings. Be vigilant and self-aware at all times.” 

Nigeria wasn’t alone in issuing a travel advisory over the UK riots. So also did Kenya, Malaysia, India, Australia Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. Kenya, which itself was recently rocked by nationwide protests against proposed tax hikes by the William Ruto government, and on which Britain and some other countries of the West had issued travel alerts, stated in a social media post: “A deeply worrying situation in the UK. Kenyans are urged to exercise caution.”

Travel advisories are ordinarily the duty of governments to issue in the interest of their respective citizens regarding countries where they think those citizens could be endangered. The United States, UK and Canada issued alerts about Nigeria to their respective citizenry many days before the August 1st commencement of the recent ‘hunger protests’ across the country. And they’re fully entitled to it. But Surprise! Surprise! It is two clear weeks since the outbreak of virulent protests in the UK, and both the US and Canada, among other Western nations, have found no need to issue any advisory to their citizens about the King’s country. 

Sometimes you can’t avoid the conclusion that travel advisories are a diplomatic witch-hunt targeted at certain countries. But you really can’t blame the advisory issuers because it could be a function of perception – that is, perception of the capacity, professionality and ethical composure, among other things, of the security personnel of some countries to handle violent crises more than others. In that sense, travel advisories are a call to reality check.