Video footage emerged of heavy-handed police stopping children from leaving the city’s train station and forcing them on to other trains on Saturday 23 November. Travellers Times reported injuries, children separated from their families and friends and left “stranded, lost and traumatised”.

Shera Rom Billy Welch told Travellers Times: “It was scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany. It was horrifying. There wasn’t one crime committed by any of them. The children were being forced on to trains and they didn’t know the destination… They were crying and begging”.

Greater Manchester Police’s assistant chief constable Rick Jackson stated: “We are aware and understand the concern around our policing of a dispersal order in Manchester city centre on Saturday 23 November. Where we have reports of anti-social behaviour and the possibility of violence, we must take action to prevent this”.

However, GMP has not specified what violent threat the traveller children posed. Friends Families and Travellers stated: “It’s vile that instead of being allowed to act like the children they are, Romany and Irish Traveller kids are criminalised, humiliated and abused daily. This is a serious example of how structural racism sustains the ‘cradle to grave’ policing pipeline of Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities. Incidents of racism have an ongoing and reverberating impact, and FFT will not let this go unanswered”.

Solidarity protests with the GRT community have been held in Manchester and London, with more organised for the coming weeks. Artist-activist Dean Rheims has created a new united Roma and Traveller flag, and a #dikhlodecember call has gone out for all Roma to express their ethnicity with pride by wearing the traditional Romani head covering in public places.

Photo: Travellers Times