England: Unrest in Leeds after authorities remove children from a Romani family
On Thursday, 18 July in the Harehills neighborhood of Leeds, England, unrest broke out after police removed children from a Romani family there. Romani community members gathered peacefully Friday evening to appeal for the children's return.
The Daily Mail reports that the Romani family is originally from Romania and had planned to fly there on Saturday the 20th. Social services had been monitoring the family after their nine-month-infant suffered a head injury in April.
During the unrest there were clashes between residents and police, whose vehicles were overturned, and a double-decker bus was set on fire, with hundreds of people assembling in the area. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the “shocking scenes and attacks” there.
The news server mirror.co.uk reported that they had been contacted by the children’s parents on Friday the 19th seeking the aid of the press in getting their children back. A friend of the family told the news server that the father tried to stop the unrest on Thursday and is appealing for calm.
Stefania Banu, a local community leader, told the Daily Mail that: “The mother and father are refusing to eat until they get their children back. We are fully supporting them. We believe it was an injustice that can be rectified by the authorities if they revise the case. Which they have promised to do.”
Banu said the children were removed from their home in a traumatizing way.
