Wave of Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Loom over Europe

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Not only in the UK and Australia, anti-immigrant demonstrations also erupt in several European countries. Demonstrations in The Hague, the Netherlands, turned violent on Saturday, September 20, 2025.

The Hague Protest Turns Violent

According to Euronews, hundreds of people clashed with the police. Masses dressed in black, carrying Dutch flags and symbols of the far-right group, threw stones and bottles at the police. They also set a police car on fire.

The police responded with tear gas and water cannons. Demonstrators briefly blocked the highway and damaged the office of the center-left party, D66, by smashing the windows. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof described the riot in The Hague as an unacceptable act of violence.

"There is always room for demonstrations, never for violence," Schoof wrote on X.

Hundreds of people initially gathered at Malieveld, The Hague, after a social media user known as Els Rechts called for a protest against immigration and demanded stricter asylum rules.

After the clashes, she denounced the violence. "I assumed that people came to demonstrate peacefully, but unfortunately, for whatever reason, it turned out very differently," she wrote.

The action occurred ahead of a snap election on October 29, following the government's collapse due to differences regarding migration policies. Leader of the Freedom Party (PVV), Geert Wilders, declined the invitation and called the riot unacceptable.

Anti-Immigrant Protests Erupt in Poland

According to Al Jazeera, anti-immigrant rejection also surged in Poland after a Venezuelan man stabbed a 24-year-old Polish woman last June. 

This incident triggered a silent march of thousands of people on July 6. The action was organized by sympathizers of the far-right alliance Konfederacja. Participants carried signs saying "stop illegal immigration."

The tension escalated with the spread of rumors. On July 14, in Walbrzych, a man from Paraguay was accused of taking pictures of children in a playground.

Police checked his phone and found no evidence, but he was still beaten up by two Polish men. A day later, about 50 people attacked the hostel where migrants lived and threw stones into the building. The owner eventually closed the hostel.

According to the same report, anti-immigrant sentiment strengthened due to political rhetoric. Claims that immigrants take away jobs from locals and bring "foreign lifestyles" are often voiced.

Protests in Northern Ireland

As reported by Anadolu, anti-immigrant riots in Northern Ireland also occurred on June 9 and peaked on June 12. In Portadown, County Armagh, about 400 people threw bricks at the police.

The riots were triggered by the arrest of two 14-year-old teenagers for alleged sexual harassment in Ballymena on June 7.

Since the start of the riots, over 40 police officers were injured and at least 15 people have been arrested. The Northern Ireland police also arrested a 30-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman for their alleged involvement in the riots.

Migrant communities, especially from the Philippines and Eastern Europe, reported threats, vandalism, and eviction. Several families boarded up their houses or raised national flags to avoid being attacked. Police also received reports of arson attacks in Coleraine.

Thousands Join Protests Denouncing Harsh Immigration Rules in Berlin

According to France24, previously, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Berlin on February 2 to oppose the conservative immigration policy of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in partnership with the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The police recorded approximately 20,000 people gathering in front of the Bundestag parliament building.

The protests were triggered by CDU and AfD's support for a resolution to restrict undocumented immigrants at the border. This decision came after an Afghan man stabbed children in a kindergarten, resulting in one fatality.

The organization Campact referred to CDU's move as an attempt to "cut through" the norm of not working with "right-wing extremists in one fell swoop." A day earlier, according to public broadcasting data from ARD, over 220,000 people had taken to the streets in Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, and Stuttgart. This action was followed by labor unions, churches, human rights groups, and environmental activists.

Editor’s Choice: Anti-Immigrant Protests in the UK Turn Violent, Dozens Arrested

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