Effigies of refugees set alight on bonfire condemned in Northern Ireland

A model of refugees in a boat, placed on a bonfire in a pro-British town near Belfast, was set alight on Thursday night, weeks after migrants’ homes were attacked nearby.

The display prompted condemnations by politicians across Northern Ireland’s political divides, and police said they were investigating it as a hate incident.

Bonfires are lit across the British region in mainly Protestant “loyalist” neighbourhoods on the eve of the July