GENEVA/LONDON: The UN rights chief on Wednesday said that anti-immigrant violence rocking Belfast and recent clashes with police in Southampton were “shocking”, criticising “incitement” on social media and elsewhere.

Authorities in Northern Ireland have accused far-right activists — including US tech billionaire Elon Musk — of stoking anti-immigrant violence and divisions as rioters in Belfast torched vehicles and buildings on Tuesday, forcing families to flee their homes.

The disorder, sparked by a brutal knife attack allegedly committed by a Sudanese national, comes with te­­n­­­­­sions already high in the United Kingdom following skirmishes in so­­­­­­­­­­­­u­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­t­­hern England last week over the police handling of the murder of a white student by a British Sikh man.

“Dehumanisation of whole groups within a society is totally unacceptable and is frankly despicable,” Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva. “The violence that comes out as a result in… both Northern Ireland and in Southampton was really shocking,” he said.

Online reaction to Belfast event by Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson blamed for riots

“Providers” on social media platforms, he insisted, must “take the responsibility seriously that dehumanisation, hate speech, violence and incitement to violence is unacceptable”.

“We cannot tolerate this in today’s world… The polarisation that we see is shocking.” Footage of the Belfast attack went viral on social media, with appeals for calm from police and lawmakers going unheeded in some areas of Northern Ireland.

Northern Irish political leaders and the police had urged people not to share the video, noting its “graphic nature would only serve to retraumatise those involved”. But numerous social media accounts linked to so-called “patriots” shared the footage, urging people to “protest against mass immigration into their communities”.

Immigration is a hot-button issue in Britain, and has helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage. The country frequently sees anti-immigration protests. Demonstrators clashed with police in Southampton on June 2 amid outrage over the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in December. He was handcuffed by police as he lay dying after his murderer Vickrum Digwa falsely accused Nowak of racially abusing him.

Far-right accounts fueled attacks

Harrowing footage of a Belfast knife attack has been seized upon by far-right accounts in Britain and abroad, helping to fuel violent overnight protests which authorities feared could re-ignite on Wednesday.

The 54-second clip, filmed by an as-yet unidentified onlooker, was posted on X late Monday by far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his self-adopted moniker Tommy Robinson.

It appeared on his account around an hour after police said a man in his 40s had been seriously injured in a stabbing on a north Belfast street. The victim has since been named as Stephen Ogilvie.

Yaxley-Lennon’s post was swiftly shared online and generated a flurry of responses, including a barrage of xenophobic comments and racist memes. X owner Elon Musk was among those to amplify far-right reaction to the incident.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2026