After week of far-right riots, uncertainty and solidarity spread across UK

Hounslow, London — Shops began shuttering early on Wednesday, as businesses braced for the worst after a list of towns and locations was leaked online by far-right groups planning a night of carnage across the United Kingdom.

Hounslow, a west London suburb with a large South Asian minority (36.7 percent) was on that list. But instead of riots, anti-fascist protests led by Stand Up to Racism united a band of supporters who vowed to stand up to the far-right.

A list of 39 immigration centres spanning the UK, from Aldershot to Wigan, were expected to be targeted by members of the far right earlier Wednesday. Social media was abuzz with talk of weapons being used, including guns and chainsaws against immigrants and people of colour. Community leaders urged non-white people to stay safe, and stay indoors.

By late afternoon, with no sign of anything untoward, some had partially raised their shutters to half mast, uncertain as to what was happening. "We just don't know what's going on, but we don't want to risk our businesses being destroyed like elsewhere in the country, so we're on standby," explained one convenience store keeper originally from India who spoke to TRT World.

Reeling from violence

The UK has witnessed six days of disorder since three young children were stabbed and killed at a dance class in Southport last week. Misinformation that went viral online said an immigrant Muslim was behind the killings (the suspect is actually a British born non-Muslim). Since then, Muslim communities in Britain have come under attack, as anti-immigrant protesters target sanctuaries with worshippers inside and hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

Many of the shop owners in this west London town close to Heathrow airport are also immigrants, mainly from India, Pakistan, Algeria, Somalia and more recently Syria. Most did not wish to reveal too much of their personal journeys due to a fear of being deported if they shared too much.

By 7pm, there was still no sign of dissent. At the local meeting point outside an immigration help centre, instead of St. George cross flags and "far right thuggery" as Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the rioters in an address to the nation, there were around 100 people standing and holding placards in support of refugee rights in an anti-fascist show of defiance.

Standing in solidarity

Annabelle Lyme, a lawyer and one of the protestors explained she lived locally and it was important for her as a white woman to show that the English Defence League (EDL) and other far-right groups do not represent her. "I wanted to be present this evening to show my local community that I do not tolerate racism."

Another English woman, visibly moved by the chanting in support of asylum seekers, expressed to TRT World: "Refugees are human, and to think they are anything other is ridiculous. We won't tolerate attacks on anyone. We are all human. This has all been simmering since Brexit" in 2016.

Rahila Gupta, chair of Southall Black Sisters, also participated in the peace event. Her group is an iconic advocacy service aimed at helping Black and minority women live free from all forms of violence and abuse.

"We've seen this pattern of behaviour before, since 1979 when we were established and stood down the National Front and their rumpus racist opinions."

Gupta said the current wave of rioting has been building up, and it's the governments that have instigated it by tightening immigration. "It's that kind of rhetoric that feeds the far right, providing the support and encouragement they want."

As she stands with a crowd of people from all backgrounds Gupta said she's not fearful of reports that earlier in the week women of colour, and women wearing hijab, had been attacked by acid or other unknown substances thrown on them.

Another woman chimed in: "It could happen anywhere, at any time. We can't let the racists get away with this behaviour."

Where are rioters?

So why didn't the far-right show up? A police officer walking by said it was probably because the list of places where mobs planned to riot had been leaked to the media, triggering law enforcement to the scene.

At least five police vans lined the site in Brentford and earlier in the day, police helicopters hovered, surveilling the town from the skies above. This perhaps served as enough of a deterrent for the five or six young hooded men across the road, waiting for back-up that never arrived.

By late evening, in the town's main shopping area, a video was released of around 20 men, hooded and carrying union jack flags, scuffling with an Asian security guard outside a sports shop.

In Harrow, another planned protest for last night also fell short. Rioters were a no-show in the north London suburb, which also has a large immigrant population. But Farhanaz Ahmed said she still made sure she and her three children were home well before the evening.

Speaking to TRT World, she said, "I'm just being cautious, but honestly I think they're just a bunch of idiots with too much time on their hands. I can't see them getting away with doing anything in this neighbourhood, there are far too many of us ‘foreigners' for them to deal with."

Ahmed grew up in London, moving here four decades ago from Afghanistan with her parents and older brother when she was just two years old. At the time, her parents wanted a stable place to raise their family. "We've always had a pretty safe upbringing in London. It's sad that a generation later we must now be concerned for our children."

Ahmed's caution comes amid reports of stabbings, mosque attacks and asylum hotels being burnt that have triggered fear and unrest across the country.

Taking precautions

At Potters International Hotel in Aldershot, Hampshire, one of 348 hotels being used to house asylum seekers across the country, the entrance has been boarded up with security guards standing nervously at the gate after the hotel was set on fire over the weekend.

The guards said there was no comment from the hotel's manager, and they weren't allowed to give comment. The arsonists of the weekend's attack have already been identified and arrested.

Meanwhile in Belfast, in Northern Ireland, after far-right rioters gathered in front of City Hall on Saturday chanting Islamophobic slogans, local businesses were also attacked.

One woman told TRT World of a young Sudanese couple with a young child who'd been attacked in their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning in central Belfast.

"They had two bricks thrown through their windows, shattering them and filling them with fear," she said. Despite having CCTV footage of the hate crime, local police told the family they didn't have the resources to look into it, as it was a Sunday.

The family had escaped the atrocities of war in Khartoum, seeking asylum in the UK, only to have the threat of violence follow them, she lamented.

Now, between the four or five Sudanese occupied homes in the neighbourhood, it's the men of the family who sit outside their houses as watchmen, protecting their trembling families inside.

"The only time they venture out is in an Uber to the grocery store and back, spending precious money on cab fares that they desperately need to live on, but they have no choice, if they try to walk to the shops, they know they will be physically attacked," the woman who declined to be named said.