Migrants’ Rights Network stands in full solidarity with migrant and racialised communities in Belfast subjected to coordinated racist violence last night: homes have been burned, families terrorised, people driven from their neighbourhoods by organised far-right and loyalist paramilitary groups.
This is not disorder. This is a pogrom: planned, incited, and executed. We will not use softer language.
A lone incident never justifies collective punishment
The violence was triggered by a single serious incident involving one individual. We do not minimise what happened. But the logic being deployed, that one person’s actions justify attacking entire communities, burning families from their homes, terrorising people on the basis of perceived immigration status, race, religion or nationality – is not justice. It is vigilantism. It is collective punishment. It is the founding logic of all organised racism, and we have seen the violence it produces several years in a row now.
This violence was orchestrated – and Westminster helped build it.
The rhetoric spewing from the mouths of those burning homes in Belfast is not fringe. It has been handed down from the despatch box. It has been tested in focus groups, sharpened by strategists, and delivered by ministers competing to prove who can be most hostile towards migrants – each hoping their cruelty will be rewarded at the ballot box.
When politicians describe people arriving here as an “invasion,” they reach for language designed to conjure enemies and threats: dehumanising, deliberate, dangerous. When the Prime Minister describes Britain as an “island of strangers,” echoing Enoch Powell, he is not making a policy argument. He is issuing a permission structure. The language of “legitimate concerns” has been used by the Government and by unionist politicians in Stormont. Racism and anti-migrant hate are not and can never be a “legitimate concern”.
When every failure of government to house people, fund the NHS, or pay a living wage is blamed on migrants rather than on the policies (or lack thereof) that caused it, the ground is being prepared for violence like this.
The far-right light the match. Westminster builds the kindling. Stormont fans the flames.
The state’s role in Belfast cannot be ignored
End Deportations Belfast and partner organisations spent over a year sounding the alarm: documenting links between paramilitary groups and the far-right; the PSNI’s failure to protect communities or investigate perpetrators; cases dropped; officers on friendly terms with far-right figures; immigration enforcement used as a public spectacle; political institutions weaponised to attack anti-racism campaigners.
Warnings went unheeded. Communities were left unprotected. When volunteers from Anaka Collective, No One Left Behind, and CATU Belfast evacuated families from burning homes last night, they acted where the State did not. At least a dozen families are safe because of them.
What we are calling for
We call on political leaders – in Westminster, and in Stormont, and beyond – to condemn this violence. Not with caveats, and not while continuing to validate anti-migrant scapegoating. You do not get to light a fire and demand credit for calling it arson.
This did not begin last night. Nationality checks on Belfast streets. Paramilitary networks with decades of practice displacing the marginalised. Warnings ignored – including by organisations outside the North unwilling to grapple with what makes this place uniquely exposed to fascist violence. That ends now. Every migrant and racial justice organisation that has stayed silent: we are calling on you to stand in solidarity with racialised people and migrants in the North of Ireland. Loudly. Publicly. Now.
We call on media to exercise responsibility. Every outlet that launders far-right talking points or frames racist violence as community grievance bears responsibility for this.
And we call on everyone who believes people should be safe regardless of where they were born: stand up. Attend vigils. Support affected families. Challenge the disinformation. Refuse the neutrality that only ever serves those doing the harm.
We want to see:
- An end to the racist rhetoric from No. 10 and Stormont
- For the UK Government to commission a new review into paramilitarism in Northern Ireland to update their outdated 2015 assessment
- For there to be a full and independent panel-led inquiry into recurring paramilitary backed far-right violence in the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland
- Assurances that the actions of one person will not be used to collectively punish and surveil migrant communities
If you are based in Belfast and you or your community have been affected:
Migrants’ Rights Network, Anaka and PPR have been working on a free workbook for migrants and allies to help migrants not feel alone when experiencing racism and far right violence in the UK which will be ready soon. Follow us on socials to access this as soon as it’s published.
In the meantime, please follow and support these Belfast groups coordinating support on the ground:
- Anaka Collective @anakacollective, [email protected]
- No One Left Behind / PPR @nooneleftbehind_ppr
- CATU Belfast @catubelfast, [email protected]
- End Deportations Belfast safety information, [email protected]
- Law Centres Northern Ireland/ Migration Justice Project – https://www.lawcentreni.org/migration-justice/
We refuse to allow the State and paramilitary groups to drag us back. The communities being attacked belong here. We keep us safe. We are not strangers.
Migrants’ Rights Network – migrantsrights.org.uk