{"id":1031365,"date":"2026-06-17T01:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1031365\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T01:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:40:32","slug":"tuv-criticised-over-spiteful-migrant-cartoon-that-party-says-highlights-influx-from-alien-cultures-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1031365\/","title":{"rendered":"TUV criticised over \u2018spiteful\u2019 migrant cartoon that party says highlights \u2018influx from alien cultures\u2019 \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The TUV<\/a> has been accused of \u201csinking to new depths\u201d after a cartoon was posted on social media depicting migrants crossing the border.<\/p>\n

The \u2018stop the buses\u2019 image, featuring a TUV logo, shows a bus labelled \u2018Migrant Express: from Dublin to Northern Ireland\u2019.<\/p>\n

Passengers are depicted as having brown and black skin, and holding placards with slogans including \u2018free benefits\u2019, \u2018free money\u2019 and \u2018free housing\u2019.<\/p>\n

The image also features two passengers wearing the Islamic niqab veil.<\/p>\n

\"‘Gary<\/a>\"Live:<\/a><\/p>\n

The TUV has said it highlights \u201cthe influx of people from alien cultures\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hardline unionist party has recently joined the DUP in calling for increased checks at the Irish border in the wake of last week\u2019s knife attack in north Belfast, for which a Sudanese man has since appeared in court charged with attempted murder.<\/p>\n

Led by MP Jim Allister, the TUV has claimed the north is a \u201cdumping ground for illegals\u201d who enter the UK across the border, making use of the Common Travel Area (CTA).<\/p>\n

\"TUVTUV leader Jim Allister speaking at his party’s annual conference in March PICTURE: JONATHAN PORTER <\/p>\n

Statistics show that asylum seekers making use of the CTA is more prevalent in the opposite direction. This month the UK Home Office said that over 900 \u201cimmigration offenders\u201d were apprehended over the past year after making their way from the Republic into the north via the open border.<\/p>\n

Data from 2024 from the Republic\u2019s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealed around 18,500 people had sought asylum in the south, after crossing the border, having made their way to Northern Ireland from Britain by ferry or plane.<\/p>\n

A TUV spokesman told the Irish News the image of the bus posted on the X platform \u201crepresents a genuine issue of concern which has been tragically brought into sharp focus by the events of last week\u201d as the man charged over the north Belfast knife attack \u201ccame to Northern Ireland from Dublin via bus\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that we have no idea how many people arrived in Northern Ireland via this route as there are no checks by the PSNI on buses or trains from the Irish Republic,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, as became clear in an interview with the Secretary of State last week there is no record of people being returned to the Irish Republic from Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is long past time that this issue was faced up to and measures were put in place to protect the people of this part of the UK from the influx of people from alien cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the responsibility of the UK to police its own borders and ensure the safety of our citizens. Just as people have been campaigning to stop the boats bringing illegals into Great Britain it is time that we saw efforts to stop the buses, trains and other methods of transport bringing illegal migrants into Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, SDLP leader Claire Hanna condemned the image for its content, and warned that unionist calls to harden the border could backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven by the TUV\u2019s standards, this is sinking to new depths,\u201d she told the Irish News. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is as spiteful and provocative as we\u2019ve come to expect, and as usual lacks strategy. The more focus the TUV put on the CTA, to impress the English far right, the more likely they are to harden the Irish Sea border.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added of last week\u2019s violence following anti-immigration protests in the wake of the knife attack: \u201cWhat we saw last week did indeed \u2018stop the buses\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a Glider burned on the streets of Belfast, public transport halted, medical appointments missed and local businesses losing thousands of pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The TUV has been accused of \u201csinking to new depths\u201d after a cartoon was posted on social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1031366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[40,1144,925,80646,16,15],"class_list":["post-1031365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-immigration","tag-northern-ireland","tag-sdlp","tag-tuv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116762904606627307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}