Coordinated by the Migrants’ Rights Network, this statement of solidarity with those affected by the racist violence in Northern Ireland calls for collective action against anti-migrant hate and violence.
For over a year, warnings about paramilitary links to the far-right and police inaction were ignored. This is a crisis point. The racist, paramilitary-backed pogroms in Belfast cannot be met with government silence or standard political platitudes.
The Social Workers Union and over 135 other organisations have already signed the Migrants’ Rights Network collective letter demanding four non-negotiable actions from Stormont and No. 10.
The community belongs here. Far-right violence does not. We are demanding immediate accountability and systemic change:
We stand in full solidarity with migrant and racialised communities in Belfast who have been subjected to coordinated racist violence: homes burned, families terrorised, people driven from their neighbourhoods by organised far-right and loyalist paramilitary groups.
This is a pogrom. We will not use softer language.
We stand with Anaka Collective, No One Left Behind, CATU Belfast, End Deportations Belfast, Migrants’ Rights Network, and every community organisation and volunteer who acted last night where the state did not.
This violence was not spontaneous. It was built – by paramilitary networks with decades of practice displacing marginalised communities, by political institutions that ignored warnings, and by a political culture in Westminster and Stormont that has deliberately weaponised anti-migrant hatred for electoral gain. Racism and anti-migrant hate are not “legitimate concerns.” They are the kindling, last night was yet another fire.
We endorse these demands:
- An immediate end to anti-migrant rhetoric from No. 10 and Stormont
- A new, independent review into paramilitarism in Northern Ireland
- A full, independent panel-led inquiry into recurring paramilitary-backed far-right violence in the North of Ireland
- Assurances that the actions of one individual will not be used to collectively punish and surveil migrant communities
To every migrant and racial justice organisation that has not yet spoken: silence is not neutrality. Stand with racialised people and migrants in the North of Ireland. Loudly. Publicly. Now.
The communities being attacked belong here. We keep each other safe. We are not strangers.
Organisations and individuals can now sign the collective letter. Demand justice with us.
Sign the letter of solidarity with Migrant and Racialised Communities in Belfast here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSOjkgi3cFE3oy_Kzc8FKRFaAXsECU6mS5H1bHss5O–KcBg/viewform
