Representatives from Gypsy and Traveller communities have said they want “accountability not apologies” after children attending the Christmas markets were “forced on to trains” by police.
National charity the Traveller Movement held preliminary talks with lawyers on Monday, and said it was considering taking legal action over the incident, and supporting affected families.
Some of the parents of children involved as well as community leaders attended a meeting in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon with the deputy mayor, Kate Green, after concerns had been raised about the incident.
Greater Manchester police (GMP) put in a 48-hour dispersal notice on Saturday afternoon, after reports of antisocial behaviour in the city centre, and on trains to Manchester.
Videos posted to social media showed young people being herded on to trains at Manchester Victoria station, with one boy heard shouting: “I don’t know where I’m going.”
One parent who spoke anonymously to the Manchester Evening News (MEN) said her 13-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son had ended up more than 100 miles away, in Grimsby.
Yvonne MacNamara, CEO of the Traveller Movement, said that while she was grateful for the meeting, “there’s more questions at this stage than answers now, and the meeting didn’t give us those answers”.
“Clearly, there has to be accountability here,” MacNamara said. “Why did this happen? Why were these children racially profiled? Where’s the accountability here? Why on earth did this happen?”
“It was completely disproportionate,” she added. “I’m kind of lost for words, really, because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It was just outrageously overzealous racial profiling of two entire communities – we’re talking about Romany Gypsies, and Irish Traveller children.”
She said some of the children involved were there with older siblings, and were as young as 10 years old.
“We cannot have this happening again, for any community,” she added. “If this was any other community, there’d be absolute nationwide outrage.”
“I have watched the videos circulating on social media with concern and have asked GMP for a full report on the action taken,” Kate Green, said on Sunday.
“While we will not tolerate lawlessness and antisocial behaviour in Greater Manchester, I want to reassure the community that I expect the police to treat everyone fairly and with respect and I will be inviting community leaders to meet me to discuss what has happened.”
MacNamara said that Green, who as an MP was a former co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (APPG GRT), had taken away their questions, adding that she anticipated the meeting would be the first of many.
“Our questions were, what was the legal framework? What were the thresholds that were met for this,” MacNamara said. “What was the intelligence and, of course, the risk assessment, given the ages of these children?”
“We need to know why this happened, and we need to know that those children are going to be welcomed back into Manchester, and that’s something for the mayor’s office to look at,” she added.
“Our priority is always to protect public safety by preventing incidents of violence and disorder,” GMP’s assistant chief constable Rick Jackson said in a statement issued on Sunday.
“Due to intelligence of groups causing antisocial behaviour on trains on the way into Manchester and similar reports rising around the city centre, alongside increasing footfall, we issued a dispersal order. This included plans for officers to reroute arriving groups back home.
“Shortly after, officers responded to several disturbances in the city centre and intervened in altercations between groups.
“We understand there are feelings of mistreatment and confusion amongst the groups of people for being turned away yesterday, and we are determined to address these concerns by working closely with the mayor’s office to engage these communities in Manchester and further afield.”
