Gypsy and Travellers leaders accuse GMP of 'utterly deplorable racial profiling'

Greater Manchester Police have been accused of 'racial profiling' and 'structural racism' after large groups of Irish Traveller and Gypsy children were forced onto trains out of Manchester city centre.

Leaders from the Travelling community have written to GMP Chief Constable Stephen Watson to call for an apology and a 'full investigation' into the weekend's 'utterly deplorable' events. They accuse the force of 'racial profiling, over-policing and violent restraint of Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller children' saying it was 'not an isolated event, but a clear example of structural racism'.

The chaotic scenes at Victoria station, the Arndale and around the Christmas Markets came after GMP signed a dispersal order allowing them to turn people away from much of the city centre. Police said they were acting on intelligence that groups of people were travelling to Manchester on trains 'causing anti-social behaviour'.

READ MORE: What really happened in town on Saturday afternoon

Video footage emerged of a large number of children, apparently prevented from attending the Christmas markets, walking down a staircase to a platform at Manchester Victoria railway station lined by police. They were then put on trains.

In one clip, a young man could be heard shouting 'I don't know where I am going' as he was pushed on board a train. Another youngster - a girl aged 13 and from Doncaster - ended up more than 100 miles away from Manchester in Grimsby after she was put on a train.

The letter, which is signed by leaders of 20 groups and organisations including Friends, Families and Travellers, Irish Community Care Manchester and the organisers of the Appleby Horse Fair, says: "The incidents are utterly deplorable, and the victims and