- The town's population of 265,000, which expanded during the Industrial Revolution.
- A child sexual exploitation scandal between 1997 and 2013 involving gangs of men.
- The official report criticized authorities for failing to address the abuse.
“It was terrifying,” Clive Wingate, who lives near the now-infamous Holiday Inn Express, said.
“When they were lighting the bins to push into the building, where there were people inside, what were their intentions?” the 66-year-old pensioner asked.
The images from Rotherham were among the most striking from the recent riots across England and Northern Ireland. Hundreds of men, some draped in the English flag, gathered outside the hotel, chanting "kick them out" while outnumbered police faced bricks and burning objects.
The nationwide riots, the worst in the country since 2011, began after a knife attack killed three girls during a dance class on July 29 in Southport, another northern town. False rumors on social media claimed that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker. Despite police correcting the record, anti-immigration riots erupted for over a week, resulting in more than 1,000 arrests.
This week, a police cordon at the Holiday Inn in Rotherham, an economically deprived town in South Yorkshire, still marked it as a “crime scene.” Signs of fire damage and plywood covering doors and windows remained, indicating the violence.
Residents said the leafy area, several kilometers (miles) from the town center, is usually peaceful. They added that the asylum seekers housed there while their applications are processed have not been a major problem.
The rioters “deserve jail, they are morons,” said Charlotte Bedford, who was out walking her dog.
“If you want to protest, protest peacefully,” added the 34-year-old.
Several rioters received heavy sentences, including a 19-year-old who got three years in prison for throwing bricks at police officers and a 60-year-old man who received two years and eight months for pulling an officer to the ground. Phil Fletcher, a 65-year-old property maintenance worker, criticized the violence but was not surprised by the riots.
“There are millions of people fed up with immigration. It’s not our country anymore,” The pensioner, who voted for the anti-immigration Reform UK party in the general election won by Labour in early July, said.
Not far from him, a woman added: “18,000 arrived since the beginning of the year,” referring to the number of migrants arriving on small boats in southeast England after crossing the Channel.
“That’s too many. Immigration has to be the priority for this government,” she added.
Brexit, according to its supporters, was meant to give the UK control over its borders. However, legal and irregular immigration, including small boat crossings, have since reached record levels. Natalie Jackson, a 28-year-old teaching assistant, stated that the UK is "a small island."
“We are overpopulated. We can’t even get a doctor’s appointment anymore,” she said.
Caroline Roberts, a 66-year-old seamstress, added: “Nobody is listening to people that are complaining.”
“If you say anything, you are called a racist.
“It’s making people very angry. The help they (migrants) get, our children can’t get it. We are short of money here,” she added.
Rotherham, with a population of 265,000, expanded during the Industrial Revolution but endured decades of economic decline after the closure of local steelworks and mines. The town also faced a notorious child sexual exploitation scandal between 1997 and 2013, which continues to have lasting effects. Watchdog reports revealed that gangs of men of Pakistani heritage raped and sexually exploited around 1,400 girls, mostly white and from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The official report harshly criticized authorities for failing to address the abuse, citing concerns over race, class, religion, and a fear that the perpetrators' ethnicity might provoke accusations of racism. This has deepened the town's distrust of immigration and institutions.
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