During the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland in 2020, false reports of Govanhill's Roma community flouting lockdown rules led to a reported 50% of the Roma population fleeing the area in fear of being targeted by racist violence. At the end of that year, social media videos alleging widespread and ongoing child abuse by the Roma community in Govanhill which were viewed by thousands prompted denials from the police, local groups and Nicola Sturgeon. Footage of squalor and accumulation of dangerous waste in back courts and common closes, itself by no means a new problem in the area, was more readily identifiable in the videos, though it was apparent that this was exacerbated to an extent by the pandemic which had disrupted regular and by-request refuse collection services, and indeed in that same week community groups staged a protest at the rubbish problem by collecting black bags and leaving them at the front gates of Queen's Park.