Top cop issues statement after young travellers turned away from Manchester

A senior police officer has vowed to 'address' the concerns of parents from traveller communities who have criticised Greater Manchester Police for forcing children and young people to leave the city as part of a 'dispersal order' designed to prevent trouble.

Assistant Chief Constable Rick Jackson spoke out after the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester Kate Green asked GMP 'for a full report on the action taken'.

The force has been accused of a 'heavy-handed and discriminatory action' by a charity who said traveller children were stopped from attending the Christmas markets and 'forced' back onto trains out of the city. The Traveller Movement, a national charity, said it was a 'shocking' and 'completely unacceptable'.

READ MORE: Call for investigation after Gypsy and Traveller children 'blocked from Christmas markets and forced onto trains out of Manchester'

Video widely shared on social media showed police herding young people into trains at Victoria railway station.

Assistant chief constable Rick Jackson said today in a statement: “We are aware of social media videos circulating, and comments from the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities concerning our policing of a dispersal order in Manchester city centre yesterday.

“Our priority is always to protect public safety by preventing incidents of violence and disorder.

“Due to intelligence of groups causing anti-social 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 re-route 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.”

The dispersal order, signed by a senior police officer at 12.13pm on Saturday, gives Greater Manchester Police extra powers to order people to leave the city and lock them up if they refuse. The order was 'in response to a rising number of reports and in the interest of protecting the public from excessive anti-social behaviour, disorder, and criminality over the weekend', said the officer who signed it.

The so-called 'section 34' order covers 48 hours and expires around noon on Monday. A man and a teenage boy were arrested at Exchange Square on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in separate incidents on Saturday, the force has said. The arrest of the youth followed moves by officers to break up a fight, said GMP.