ROMANIA PERSPECTIVE

Bucharest is the only country to view Belfast through the eyes of its own citizens caught in the storm. Romania's foreign ministry confirmed that the homes of three Romanian families were vandalized during the night of riots, and that those families, terrified, 'want to return home as soon as possible.' The Romanian consulate general in Edinburgh is in continuous dialogue with them; a travel-document request has already been filed by a parent wishing to bring a minor child back to Romania. Romanian coverage thus surfaces a blind spot in most accounts: the victims of the anti-immigration riots are not only Sudanese asylum seekers, but also long-settled Eastern Europeans, targeted by the same 'masked men' shouting 'foreigners out.' The tone is protective and anxious, centered on the safety of nationals. The Romanian press also notes, with biting irony, the outburst of Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who literally called on 'aliens' to convince Starmer to resign so as to 'give hope to Western civilization' — a Russian provocation grafted onto the Belfast chaos. For Bucharest, the episode is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of its vast diaspora in the UK.