Migrant communities in Belfast ‘feel a fear of the like I have not seen in over 40 years of policing’

Red, white and blue bunting flutters in the breeze; around the corner, a man sweeps glass and debris from the street outside his burnt-out supermarket.

This is Sandy Row, a working-class, staunchly loyalist part of south Belfast near the city centre, which was traditionally a UDA stronghold and where the paramilitary group still has influence.

It is also one of the areas where people and businesses from ethnic minorities have been attacked.

[ A refugee in Belfast: ‘There is a nervousness. You don’t know who’s with you and who is against you – even among colleagues’ ]

The spate of violence began a week ago, when anti-immigration protesters – including far-right agitators who travelled from Dublin with a “Coolock Says No” banner – attacked an anti-racism rally at Belfast City Hall and then rampaged through south Belfast, Northern Ireland’s most ethnically diverse area.

Blocked from the Belfast Islamic Centre mosque, they targeted businesses – halal shops, Turkish barbers, anything with a Muslim name – before they were halted by residents on the Lower Ormeau Road.

The violence has continued; as of Thursday evening, there had been 22 arrests for race-related hate crimes, hate incidents and disorder.

A man in his 50s was seriously injured after attackers stamped on his head in the Sandy Row area and police came under “sustained attack” from rioters throwing petrol bombs, masonry and bricks.

An estate agent in the Woodvale area of north Belfast, Robert McDowell, was rammed by masked men driving a hijacked car; the owner said it was the second time his business had been targeted after false claims were circulated on social media that it was providing homes for asylum seekers.

This is the tip of the iceberg; many of those attacked this week have recounted how this was not the first time, just the first time wider society took notice.

The PSNI has said it is in “no doubt” that a loyalist paramilitary “element” is involved.

This is not to suggest racism is confined to this community, as the Tricolours flown alongside union flags at last weekend’s anti-immigration protest, or indeed the racist abuse of staff in a Falls Road shop, demonstrated.

But it is part of a pattern, says Daniel Holder, of the Belfast-based human rights NGO the Committee on the Administration of Justice. “Most racist intimidation is in particular areas of loyalist paramilitary control.”

Compared with England, “it’s a significant escalation. There are more far-right actors involved, but it’s more of a continuum from an existing pattern of orchestrated, racist violence with loyalist paramilitary involvement.”

The justification put forward is that this is about housing; unsubstantiated claims have been made that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are being given preferential treatment, and are the reason others cannot get a house or access public services.

“There is a shortage of social housing,” says Paddy Gray, emeritus professor of housing at Ulster University. Targets haven’t been met every year, and for many people in the private rented sector, rents have been increasing a lot. In Derry, for example, you’ll find many people can’t get accommodation because they can’t afford it.

“Housing need has increased substantially but yet housing supply hasn’t,” he says. “Migrants have no impact at all on waiting lists, many of the migrants would be living in the private rental sector, and there would be no favouritism … social housing would be allocated on the basis of need.”

Number migrating to Northern Ireland are not hugely significant: according to the most recent figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) in 2022 the North’s population increased by 2,300 people – about 0.1 per cent – due to net migration, the first time since 2019 there has been an increase.

In 2024-25, budget cuts mean only 400 new social housing units will be built, far below the target of 2,000. Put simply, not enough houses are being built.

Only 2.5 per cent of asylum seekers seeking sanctuary in the UK, or about 2,800 people, are living in Northern Ireland, according to the latest figures from the Law Centre NI. Applicants are not on social housing waiting lists, as the UK government is responsible for their accommodation.

The call for more social housing, displayed on a Sandy Row wall, is reasonable. The same cannot be said for laying the blame for the shortage on migrants.

But perception is what matters. A statement this week from Ron McDowell, the deputy leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), talked of “ordinary working-class communities which are at breaking point … There is a need for debate about the issues caused by immigration and the pressures which it is causing when it comes to public services … The issues caused by mass immigration can no longer be ignored.”

DUP MLA and Stormont Speaker Edwin Poots, said: “The violence witnessed tonight in south Belfast is totally wrong and unacceptable”, before adding: “Working people are being driven out of the community because housing is unaffordable and unattainable.”

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, one loyalist summed up the political “tightrope” being walked. “They may be bastards, but they’re our bastards. It’s a primal, tribal thing.”

Caroline – who does not want to use her real name out of concern for her personal safety – is deeply critical of the “real lack of leadership” from some unionist politicians.

She is a member of Her Loyal Voice, a group of loyalist women – which supports the anti-racism protests, and she says the “genuine concerns crowd” haven’t done enough to challenge racist narratives.

“Housing pressures, NHS waiting lists, violence against women and girls, all those big issues in our society are not related to migration, and so whenever they say ‘Oh, racism, terrible, but there’s some genuine concerns’, they bolster the narrative that those issues are related to migration, and that’s really harmful.”

She is concerned by the “radicalisation of vulnerable young people” in loyalist communities, “and there’s been a lot of misinformation, and that is being repeated as justifications for these actions”.

But alongside that, she says, is a “quieter countercurrent of people saying: Hang on, some of these issues are real issues, but they’re nothing to do with migration”.

These “quieter” viewpoints are rarely heard, not least as people are often reluctant, or afraid, to speak up. Of the many loyalist sources contacted by The Irish Times this week, Caroline was the only one willing to have a conversation.

She has found the past week “pretty devastating, to be honest. There had been a lot of good work done within loyalism, and I think in the past decade or so there’s been a real chipping away of that.

“It’s going to do our community no good, and I’m thinking about the young people in our community who are hearing this is what it means to be a loyalist, and it’s going to turn them off.”

She is also concerned about what people from ethnic minorities who live near her will think. She does not want her neighbours, when they hear she’s a loyalist, to think she hates them.

On Thursday, MLAs were recalled to Stormont and passed a motion rejecting “all forms of Islamophobia, xenophobia and racism”.

The symbolism has been welcomed, but campaigners say the gaps to be filled are huge; to highlight only two, Northern Ireland does not have hate crime legislation, and its racial equality strategy – which the Executive pledged this week to bring forward – is still waiting to be implemented almost 20 years after it was first published.

In the days ahead, more protests are planned and there are fears of further disorder. The atmosphere is febrile, and dangerous; on Thursday, Ali Khan from the Northern Ireland Muslim Council warned of “a false and dangerous narrative circulating at present” alleging armed Muslim gangs are on the streets of Belfast. This was, he said, “a blatant falsehood”.

“Muslims constitute a small minority in Northern Ireland, and these false narratives have seen several individuals targeted and their properties vandalised.”

Security has been enhanced at the Belfast Islamic Centre; the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – which has faced criticism over its handling of the violence – has requested 120 additional officers from Police Scotland, who are due to arrive next week.

“All our migrant communities, all our diverse communities, feel under threat,” Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told reporters on Thursday. “They feel a fear of the like I have not seen in over 40 years of policing.

“This has got to stop, and we will stop it.”

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