The United Nations has called on the Belfast and London governments to “strengthen measures” to combat intimidation of ethnic minorities and migrants by paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.
In remarks on the right to adequate housing, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights said it was “concerned” about “reports of discrimination and intimidation faced by migrants and ethnic minorities, which hinders their access to adequate housing”.
Last week the Independent Reporting Commission, which monitors progress towards ending paramilitary activity in the North, said there were 1,353 race-related hate incidents in 2024, some of which had links to paramilitaries.
In its seventh periodic report on the UK, which has just been published, the UN committee “urged” both the Stormont and Westminster governments to “strengthen measures to prevent and combat intimidation by paramilitary groups against ethnic minorities and migrants in Northern Ireland to ensure their access to adequate housing and to prevent de facto segregation”.
Grind school expansion in South Dublin sparks concern among school principals over loss of students
Boy (11) stabbed at primary school in north Dublin
Paddy McKillen jnr puts Magheramore Beach lands up for auction at €550,000
Zelenskiy ready to sign minerals deal and ‘work under Trump’s strong leadership’ toward Ukraine peace deal
It also said the governments should “collect data on such acts and ensure that they are promptly and effectively investigated”.
Mohammed Idris, who was intimidated out of his home in the Tiger’s Bay area of north Belfast in 2014, said the UN’s intervention was welcome and might put pressure on the government to take action.
“We need someone to speak out on our behalf, because no one listens to us,” he said. “The government never listen to us, but they might listen to other officials.”
Originally from Sudan, he moved to Ireland 16 years ago.
“We had just moved into the new house, we were two families, two Sudanese families [living next door to each other] and at night-time ... people came, they smashed the windows with heavy stones, the two houses at the same time, and we were forced to move out.”
In 2023, his business in Sandy Row was burnt down, and last year his cafe “was completely burnt again, in a hate-motivated crime” during a weekend of racist violence in Belfast following an anti-immigration protest.
He is trying to re-establish his business in Belfast city centre but said seven months on, he has received no financial compensation or assistance.
“I’ve been let down by the government, by the system. Up to now there’s not any penny from the government,” he said.
“We need this organisation to put the government under pressure. They have to do something, the authorities here, they have to do something.”
Eliza Browning from the Belfast-based human rights NGO, the Committee on the Administration of Justice, welcomed the UN’s observations, particularly on improved data collection, “as the ongoing lack of transparency over those responsible for these acts allows the issue to be ignored in strategic responses by the government.
“It is long past time that paramilitary racist violence and intimidation, specifically in housing, is tackled with the urgency and severity it demands,” she said.
“The UN’s call for action must be a turning point to eradicate this abuse from our communities and build safer, more welcoming neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland.”
In its lengthy remarks, the UN also highlighted a number of other concerns, including the UK government’s Legacy Act – which is due to be repealed – and the continued lack of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, which the committee said must be expedited.
The director of the Human Rights Consortium, Kevin Hanratty, said the committee’s recommendations made clear that the failure to establish a Bill of Rights “has resulted in a broader human rights deficit, with accountability slipping through the cracks and the rights of the most vulnerable communities left unprotected”.
