The limits of welcome

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: New trouble in Northern Ireland.

Questions over how to confront immigration and border controls have taken center stage there, two weeks after a violent attack sparked violent protests.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And although the streets of Belfast have grown calmer again…solving those bigger issues is proving difficult for a region already long divided.

WORLD’s Harrison Watters reports.

HARRISON WATTERS: Presbyterian Pastor Gavin Beers was visiting family in Belfast earlier this month when his social media lit up.

BEERS: Every time I go back, the face of the society looks very different…and voices have been raised about this, and then this incident takes place where a man is basically butchered in the street.

The news by Wednesday was worse.

BELFAST TELEGRAPH: Hadi Alodid is accused of attempting to murder Stephen Ogilvie, and possession of a knife in a public place…

GBNEWS: The victim of the Belfast stabbing, I’m afraid to say, who is seriously ill in hospital, lost his left eye in the attack.

Ogilvie’s family says he has since regained consciousness…but may not regain his sight.

Alodid is from Sudan. He claimed UK asylum in 2023, and was approved for five years. With war still raging in Sudan, the UK government granted 95% of Sudanese asylum requests last year.

Ron McDowell is a Belfast Councilmember from the district where the attack happened.

MCDOWELL: So it came when Belfast was already like a tinderbox with some of the issues that have been coming from the migration policy.

Ireland has been sharply divided for more than 75 years … over factors like religion, politics, and borders. The Catholic south formed the Republic of Ireland in 1949, while the Protestant North remained in the UK. That led to decades of fighting known as the Troubles. 

Here’s Pastor Beers:

BEERS: So you've got a patchwork right across the country, and in Belfast, you've got a patchwork of communities right across the city: those who want to be British, those who want to be Irish.

The border checkpoints came down following the 1998 deal known as the Good Friday Agreement. Factions in Northern Ireland laid down their weapons and set up joint education and trade programs across the Irish border. 

But the border again became a flash point in 2016 after Brexit. The Republic of Ireland stayed in the European Union while Northern Ireland followed the U.K. out. 

McDowell again:

MCDOWELL: And because of the delicate situation of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and the desire to keep peace, they agreed on a soft border in Ireland.

The Common Travel Area opened borders across Ireland in 2014. 

Incidents like the one earlier this month have sparked concerns across political lines about unchecked immigration. Even so, Northern Ireland’s government rejects border concerns. 

Here’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill of the leftist Sinn Féin party:

O’NEILL: But that is not the debate for today. The debate today is about our society, about our inclusive society, our welcoming society…

Days after masked protestors burned immigrant cars and homes, O’Neill met with leaders of minority groups…to apologize.

O’NEILL: What we saw on Tuesday night and last night is pure racism.

Reverend Beers says it’s not quite that simple.

BEERS: The people in these communities are seeing those communities being radically changed from everything that they've known, and so there is a frustration building up, and if the politicians are not listening, I can understand the impulse to descend into that kind of violent response.

Councilman McDowell says the violence is not limited to frustrated citizens.

MCDOWELL: Some of the papers and the press reported that some of the paramilitaries could have been involved…those paramilitary and terrorist organizations still exist.

Men dressed in black went through multiple neighborhoods, burning cars and homes believed to belong to immigrants. McDowell says his parents were prepared to stand in front of their non-white neighbors’ house to protect them.

MCDOWELL: Two 75-year-olds…prepared to stand in a garden and fight a mob, and that's terrifying for me as a son.

That didn’t end up happening. And while McDowell says the physical protests have stopped for now, the political disagreements continue.

In London, the Labour government is beginning to reckon with problems in Britain’s asylum system. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government scuttled plans to deport illegal immigrants to Rwanda in 2024. 

But this spring, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a policy shift:

MAHMOOD: We will do so by making refugee status temporary, not permanent.

The reforms require asylum to be renewed every two and a half years and put new restrictions on government welfare. But the future of that plan depends on who takes over following Starmer’s resignation on Sunday.

Back in Belfast, Alodid is scheduled to next appear in court by video link on July 8th.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Harrison Watters.

—Editor’s note: A previous version of this report mistakenly gave the incorrect year of the Brexit vote.

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