Nine arrests in Spain after anti-migrant unrest

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00:00Spanish police have arrested nine people over rare anti-migrant unrest.

00:06The disturbing twist in this story is a far-right group named Deport Them Now

00:12have posted a message online calling for attacks against people of North African origin.

00:18Three nights of violence erupted on Friday after a 68-year-old man told local media

00:22three youths of North African origin had beaten him up in the street of a southeastern town

00:29Torre Pacheco.

00:31Sarah Morris joins us from Madrid to give us more on this story.

00:34A case of riot caused by social media, Sarah.

00:39Indeed, and the interior minister and the authorities are basically saying

00:44that far-right groups are organising themselves online and actually coming in from outside

00:50this small town in the southeast of Spain to cause trouble.

00:55They say that they've identified about 80 individuals.

00:59Many of them have previous convictions, say the authorities, and they are really there to cause

01:06trouble.

01:07This, as you say, after a man did say that he had been beaten up by three youths of immigrant

01:16dissent.

01:17And this has really fuelled tensions in this small town.

01:22The mayor is basically appealing to people to stay off the streets, to not to get involved

01:29in these clashes.

01:31And he's telling people from outside the town not to come in.

01:35If they've been led to believe, he's said to them, that they are here to help people because

01:41of foreign criminals, they are not needed in the town.

01:45And basically, the interior minister has said that there will be extra police tonight, extra

01:51of those Guardia Civil police there to reinforce security in the town to make sure that it is

01:59a peaceful night.

02:01Sarah, why all the hatred?

02:02I mean, clearly, there's been the alleged attack on the 68-year-old man, which is bad

02:06enough in itself, regardless of who did it, who's responsible, whether there's racial element

02:11or not.

02:11An attack on someone is a bad thing per se.

02:14But why the hatred?

02:16Is there something else going on that's not being reported?

02:20It is basically far-right groups, it seems, that feel that they have got something to gain

02:26politically from escalating any tensions that may be available to escalate in any small town.

02:33Spain basically has quite a good history, really, of integrating immigrants.

02:40It has a more recent history of immigration than perhaps France and the UK and Germany.

02:47And many of those immigrants so far have been Spanish-speaking.

02:52And far-right parties like Vox want to capitalise on the second-generation immigrants that have

02:59been born to Moroccan families or coming in from Mali and Senegal.

03:05Basically, any of those youngsters that might be involved in trouble, they would like to capitalise

03:12on it.

03:13Some of the experts say that that second-generation of immigrants may find themselves coming up

03:19against racism in Spain, and they may find that their opportunities in Spain are not what

03:25they thought that they could expect.

03:28And those tensions are a new thing to Spaniards, and it may be that political groups want to

03:34exploit them.

03:36Sarah Morris in Madrid, thank you, as always.

03:38Sarah Morris in Madrid, thank you.

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