Press Release
Published on July 14, 2026
Lawyers, community workers, and others who support migrants in Northern Ireland say they are being targeted for their work by far-right groups, including loyalist paramilitaries, while the authorities are failing to protect them.
Human Rights First’s new report, “Locals Only”: Migrants and Their Supporters Targeted in Northern Ireland, documents how people providing legal, advocacy, housing, and other support services to migrants are facing abuse and intimidation, including death threats.
“The Human Rights Defenders helping migrants are increasingly being treated as targets themselves,” said Suchita Uppal, co-author of the report. “Loyalist paramilitaries are behind much of this intimidation, but the authorities have been too slow to say so or to act. They need to name what is happening and protect those at risk, not leave them to face the danger alone.”
Human Rights First has worked on Northern Ireland accountability issues since the 1980s, including monitoring attacks on human rights lawyers during and after the 1969-1998 conflict. With other international experts, it co-authored the 2024 investigation “Bitter Legacy: State Impunity and the Northern Ireland conflict” In June 2026, it visited Belfast and spoke with dozens of activists, service providers, community workers, and lawyers who described the vilification they and the migrant communities they serve are facing.
The report focuses on those providing legal, advocacy, housing, and other support services to migrants, and what they endure for doing that work. It shows how they have found threatening signs and racist graffiti at their homes and offices, had their names and addresses circulated online, and received abusive phone calls. It comes after the third consecutive summer of anti-migrant violence in Northern Ireland, including major rioting in Belfast in June 2026 after a knife attack by a Sudanese man in north Belfast was used by far-right agitators to inflame hostility toward migrants.
“People no longer feel they can do this work in the open,” said Brian Dooley, Senior Advisor at Human Rights First and co-author of the report. “They are taking their names off websites, coming off social media, and rethinking their own safety, simply for helping migrants.”
Human Rights First has documented similar patterns elsewhere in Europe, including the prosecution of humanitarian workers at the Poland-Belarus border and threats against immigration lawyers in Britain. Across these contexts, those assisting migrants are increasingly being treated as legitimate targets for abuse.
