Seeking peace after anti-immigration riots in Northern Ireland

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND—A barrier of police cars and jeeps crowded parts of University Road in Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, on June 9. People crowded to watch a burning trash bin as smoke rose in the air between sprinkles of rain.

Over on Sandy Row, a road in an infamous loyalist and Protestant working-class neighborhood in south Belfast, a mass of rioters dressed in black surrounded a burning building. I had just enough time to snap a photo before a man patrolling on a scooter told me to put away my phone.

Riots gripped the city after a knife-wielding Sudanese man attacked a man in north Belfast on June 8. Mobs began burning houses belonging to immigrants, and the riots triggered road closures, pausing tourism as cruise ships rerouted, businesses closed, and people stayed inside.

Some calm has since returned to the region. But the attack and ensuing unrest have revealed cracks in the United Kingdom’s immigration system, echoing decades-old violence and leaving many families homeless and traumatized. In the wake of the violence, some groups try to promote peace and bridge the gap between migrants and longtime residents.

Police accused Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old who arrived in the United Kingdom as a refugee in 2023, of launching a brutal knife attack on Belfast resident Stephen Ogilvie. Ogilvie lost his left eye in the attack and sustained severe neck and back injuries. Authorities denied bail for Alodid, who will appear in court again on July 8.

Video of the attack spread on social media, sparking widespread outrage. X founder Elon Musk and right-wing activist Tommy Robinson shared anti-immigration social media posts that went viral. The violent riots targeted immigrants, as some rioters claimed Alodid’s case exposed a dangerous back door into the United Kingdom. Alodid had earlier received permission to remain in Northern Ireland for five years after he had crossed via the Irish border.

Anti-immigrant rioters spread a hit list with the addresses of immigrant families. They circulated the following message on social media: “All men aged 18 and over, wear dark clothing … and be prepared to fight or be arrested. All businesses must close at 5:30 pm tonight, no excuses.”

Rory Doherty, founder of the social nonprofit Voicing the Void, is actively involved in the riot relief efforts. He emphasized “how serious the situation has been for many people from ethnic minority communities and those seeking sanctuary.” Doherty rushed food parcels and supplies to immigrants too terrified to set foot outside.

Zakaria, a 26-year-old from Somalia whose surname was withheld for his safety, was one of those who fled as rioters targeted their homes. “I feel I’m always the target. … I always feel attacked,” he said, according to Doherty, who interviewed Zakaria for Voicing the Void. Zakaria said he sought refuge in Northern Ireland in January after terrorists killed his father and abducted his girlfriend.

Jack McKee, a pastor, told the BBC that members of his church who had been in the area for more than two decades were among those affected. “I’m doing my best to help them,” he said.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for calm, saying that “driving people out of their homes is not and will never be the right way to respond to an attack like this.”

The roots of these outbreaks of racial violence go back to historical divisions between Catholic republican and Protestant loyalist communities in Northern Ireland, dating back to the three decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles.

Before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought promises of peace and power sharing, not many people wanted to migrate to Northern Ireland because of the conflict, Doherty told me. But after the peace agreement, migrants began seeking sanctuary in the area, arriving in a polarized community. “The ‘them and us culture’ shifted from between—not Green and Orange [Catholic and Protestant] anymore—but foreigners,” he said.

According to a 2021 census, only 6% of the population of Northern Ireland were immigrants at the time, and about 97% of the population identified as white. There are just over 5,000 asylum seekers—making up less than 3% of asylum seekers in the U.K.—now under different resettlement programs in Northern Ireland, according to U.K. immigration data from May.

On June 13, thousands of people gathered outside Belfast City Hall to the sound of drums in an anti-racism protest, represented by organizations including United Against Racism Belfast, People Before Profit, the Green Party, and others.

“Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!” “Racism has no place in our city!” people chanted.

Darren Ferguson founded the nonprofit Beyond Skin in 2004. Composed of volunteers from across the political spectrum, Beyond Skin brings refugees and migrants into the same room as people from Protestant loyalist communities so they can hear “a different story,” said Ferguson. The meetings are usually held secretly to ward off any pushback. “You have to get in a room with them … bringing people over from hate to empathy,” he said.

Doherty said the polarization has still caused many communities to feel left behind. “Many of the young [are] feeling [they are] not being included or brought forward in the change and progressions happening across Northern Ireland,” he said. “Lack of investment in working-class communities, many people falling through the education systems [and] benefit systems, and then the far-right narrative coming through and blaming the ‘other.’”

Tensions in Belfast have remained high for months. Two years ago, anti-immigration riots erupted across Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Last year, riots broke out in Ballymena after two Roma boys were accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

Henok Kiros, an Ethiopian, has lived in Belfast since 2008. He recounted how Belfast has changed since Brexit and COVID-19. People “[started] blaming immigrants for the problems with the economy and housing,” he told me.

Earlier this year, Protestant loyalist communities put up a series of artificial intelligence–generated murals with anti-immigration themes. They featured slogans such as, “Islam is Satanic. Spawned in Hell. A new evil has arisen.” Social media users circulated immigrants’ addresses, and families received visits from police officers warning them they were not safe.

“It has created fear across whole communities,” Doherty said. “The impact goes far beyond physical damage.”

The Rev. Gavin Beers, a North Carolina pastor originally from Northern Ireland, told WORLD he attended one of the riots before it turned violent. As he was leaving, he saw a large double-decker bus that rioters had set on fire. Beers said Northern Ireland has seen more immigration compared with the community he grew up in. He said the end goal of immigration should be assimilation and not a mix of “different cultures that are inimical to each other.”

“Immigration has to be a net benefit for that country,” he said. “In God’s providence, they are on our doorstep, and the Christian church should be reaching out to them, but there’s a separate question, and that is, ‘How should we think about this as Christians politically?’”

Despite the violence and destruction that occurred this month, Doherty argues that it does not represent the majority of Belfast residents. He pointed to the community activism and support that have followed the violence, saying that many people checked on their neighbors and offered help. “What I witnessed … was one of the most hopeful things I have seen in a long time,” he said. “In the middle of fear and uncertainty, there was compassion, solidarity, and community.”

—with reporting from Harrison Watters