Calendar of Racism and Resistance ( 25 November – 9 December 2025)

Calendar of Racism and Resistance ( 25 November – 9 December 2025)

December 11 2025 News

Written by: IRR News Team


ELECTORAL POLITICS| GOVERNMENT POLICY 

25 November: A Dutch MP announces that the European Parliament’s controversial security working group probe into EU funding of climate advocacy groups will be expanded to think-tanks, constituencies and others dealing with migration. (EU Observer, 25 November 2025)

26 November: A TNI report accuses the German state of providing ‘a laboratory for the criminalisation of solidarity with Palestine’, with protest bans and police violence, mass surveillance, lawfare, smear campaigns, workplace reprisals, cultural deplatforming and the instrumentalisation of migration and asylum law amounting to a system that has left the constitutional framework almost unrecognisable.  (TNI, 26 November 2025)

26 November: Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin denies that planned changes to migration policy – including a longer wait for citizenship for refugees, longer waits and financial support conditions for family reunion and contribution to accommodation costs for asylum seekers in work – are a reaction to similar plans announced by the British government. (RTÉ, 26 November 2025)

27 November: Progressive and left-leaning MPs walk out of the inaugural session of the European Parliament’s new scrutiny working group, describing the move to investigate transparency around NGO funding as a far-right witch hunt and a politically motivated assault on civil society. (EU Observer, 27 November 2025)

28 November: A leaked diplomatic cable reveals that the US State department ordered American diplomats stationed in Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to ‘raise US concerns about violent crimes associated with people of a migration background’ and to report back if countries have ‘policies that unduly favour migrants at the expense of local populations’. (Huffington Post, 28 November 2025)

28 November: Northern Ireland DUP MP Sammy Wilson is referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after claiming, during a parliamentary debate on the controversy surrounding the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, that English police bowed to pressure from ‘Muslim politicians and Muslim thugs’. (Belfast Telegraph, 29 November 2025)

1 December: Facing heavy internal criticism, Germany’s Association of Family Entrepreneurs backtracks on its decision to lift a ‘contact ban’ with the far-right Alternative for Germany. (Deutsche Welle, 1 December 2025)

2 December: A high court judge rejects an application by a Traditional Unionist Voice member to have a Palestinian flag, which was flying for a 24-hour period, taken down from outside Belfast City Hall. (BBC News, 2 December 2025)

3 December: Scotland’s first minister John Swinney, says comments made by Nigel Farage were ‘simply racist’. In a social media video Farage complained that one in three Glasgow schoolchildren do not speak English as their first language, and this represents the ‘cultural smashing of Glasgow’. (Yahoo News, 3 December 2025). Read a statement from Positive Action on Housing here.

5 December: Reform UK revokes the party membership of the leader of Staffordshire County Council, Ian Cooper, after he allegedly abused Sadiq Khan, David Lammy and other public figures online. (Guardian, 5 December 2025)

5 December: A US policy document, ‘Cultivate resistance’, signed by Trump, makes explicit Washington’s support for European nationalist far-right parties, appears to echo the ‘great replacement theory’ and warns that Europe faces ‘civilisational erasure’ within the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration. (Guardian, 5 December 2025)

7 December: Police Scotland accuse Nigel Farage of making false claims of three sexual assaults by asylum seekers in Falkirk in the past week at a rally attended by an estimated 750 people, where he also repeated the claim about Glasgow schoolchildren. (Daily Record, 7 December 2025)

8 December: Parliament debates the introduction of digital ID following a petition against it signed by nearly 3 million people, making it the fourth-largest petition in British history. (Statewatch, 4 December 2025)

8 December: Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp calls for all dual-national British citizens who commit crime to be stripped of their citizenship and deported, following the party’s commitment to automatic deportation for all foreign offenders. (Times, 8 December 2025)

8 December: At a press conference, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says that the government’s national ‘grooming gang’ inquiry must ‘consider the role of ethnicity, religion and other cultural factors’. (Guardian, 8 December 2025)

9 December: Worcestershire County Council Reform leader Jo Monk sends a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the chair of Worcester Labour Party warning against the sharing of ‘videos, posts or commentary’ about Reform UK. Remarks apparently aimed at disabled peopled had been recently criticised by the Labour chair, who also accused Reform of ‘enabling and supporting’ the Patriots of Worcester Facebook group. (BBC News, 9 December 2025)

9 December: The French Républicains party puts forward 17 measures targeting Muslims, including a ban on under-18s wearing hijabs in public and the prohibition of Ramadan fasting for under-16s. Muslim organisations write an open letter to the Senate President expressing ‘weariness’ at the repeated ‘stigmatisation’ of French Muslims. (RFI, 9 December 2025)

ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT

28 November: A man from Hereford is jailed for possessing and distributing extreme right-wing music with lyrics that breach terrorism laws and incite racial hatred. In his home, police found more than 2,000 records that he had been selling across the UK and Europe. (BBC News, 28 November 2025) 

29 November: In Ireland, a Special Detective Unit (operational anti-terrorism) police chief says that the City West and Dublin riots two years ago were reactive, not organised and not primarily driven by the far Right, although ten far-right groups – some of which provide an ‘easy home for criminals’ – are under investigation. (Irish Independent, 29 November 2025)

29 November: More than 25,000 protesters in Giessen, Germany, block roads and clash with police who use pepper spray and water cannon as the AfD attempts to launch its new youth wing, Generation Germany. The disruption delays the convention by hours, with AfD leaders condemning the demonstrations. Delegates elect Jean-Pascal Hohm to lead the new organisation. (Daily Mail, 29 November 2025)

30 November: Thousands march in Croatia against a surging far Right following a wave of extremist incidents targeting ethnic minorities, liberals, and Serb cultural events. Protesters in several cities demand authorities curb the use of Ustasha-era pro-fascist symbols, while counter-gatherings in Rijeka and Zadar throw insults, firecrackers, and paint. Organisers warn that rising extremism, emboldened by a conservative–far-right coalition, is fuelling dangerous ethnic and political tensions. (Midland Daily News, 30 November 2025)

30 November: Research by the Hope and Courage Collective claims that two anti-immigration influencers (Niall McConnell, Seed of Ireland, and Keith O’Brien, former member of the National Party) are fuelling Ireland’s far Right while ‘creating a business model’ to fund and grow their nationalist ideologies. (Irish Independent, 30 November 2025)

1 December: Far-right leader Afroditi Latinopoulou of the Voice of Reason party attacks the Greek government, accusing PM Mitsotakis of corruption and calling for harsh crackdowns on migrants, Roma and other groups. In a Skai TV interview, she proposes confining migrants to uninhabited islands, reinstating the death penalty, and using castration for child-sex offenders. (Ekathimerini, 1 December 2025) 

1 December: Police in Spain arrest three suspected members of the neo-Nazi terror group The Base, seizing weapons and dismantling what they say is the country’s first accelerationist cell. Investigators say the trio train with paramilitary techniques, recruit online, and communicate with the group’s US founder. (Guardian, 1 December 2025)

2 December: The Together Alliance, a new coalition of more than 50 campaign organisations, civil society groups, celebrities and trades unions, is launched to counter the far Right and reject division and hate. (Morning Star, 2 December 2025)

2 December: A Byline Times investigation finds that nationalist vigilante ‘street patrol’ groups, with links to neo-Nazis and the support of senior Reform figures, have falsely claimed to be working with the police while seeking to infiltrate local school network to ‘protect’ women and children. (Byline Times, 2 December 2025)

2 December: A neo-Nazi group attacks four Portuguese musicians and an event organizer with pepper spray outside a concert venue in Madrid, Spain. Local groups say this is the fourth such attack in ten days, alongside repeated Nazi graffiti on the venue’s door. (Portugal Pulse, 2 December 2025)

3 December: West Dunbartonshire Council says that its staff have received ‘unacceptable’ abuse and been threatened by members of the public when taking down flags illegally draped on lampposts. When they tendered external contractors for the work, no bids were received. (BBC News, 3 December 2025)

5 December: Worcestershire Against Hate is launched to combat ‘vigilantism’ that puts asylum seekers at risk, after Patriots for Worcester launch a hunt for ‘illegal immigrants’ [asylum seekers] moved from a local hotel into other accommodation, staking out properties where asylum seekers might be housed and posting addresses on Facebook. (Daily Express, 6 December 2025, Evesham Journal, 5 December 2025)

7 December: As Tommy Robinson urges supporters to join carol events to ‘put the Christ back into Christmas’, the Church of England launches a poster campaign to challenge anti-migrant messages. The ecumenical Joint Public Issues Team offers a ‘rapid response resource’ for local churches trying to ‘navigate the complexities of Christian nationalism. (Guardian, 7 December 2025)

ANTI-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY 

28 November: A survey of more than 1,000 people from across the political spectrum  finds that more than half of those who participated believe the ban on Palestine Action undermines democracy in the UK. (Press release, 28 November 2025)

1 December: The French Council for the Muslim Faith calls for an investigation into allegations that a survey of the Muslim community, based on data from French security services and reportedly conducted on behalf of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, was then passed on to the Israeli intelligence services. (Middle East Eye, 1 December 2025)

1 December: In Ireland, a Special Detective Unit police chief says that its priority is early intervention to protect young people at risk of radicalisation by Islamists, with the SDU involved in at least 10 interventions in recent months into ‘radicalisation and religious extremism’ which have led to no prosecutions so far. (Irish Independent, 1 December 2025)

POLICING| PRISONS| CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 

25 November: A leaked letter from justice secretary David Lammy reveals proposals to remove the right to jury trial for all but the most serious cases, sparking outrage from leading lawyers and rights groups who say the plan will create further miscarriages of justice for Black, Asian and minority ethnic defendants. (Guardian, 25 November 2025; Guardian, 26 November 2025) 

26 November: More than 100 lawyers and legal experts call on the lord chancellor, the attorney general and the Law Society president to publicly defend lawyer Fahad Ansari, who they say has been subjected to ‘unacceptable attacks’ and threats, after he started a legal challenge to the proscription of Hamas. (Law Society Gazette, 26 November 2025)

26 November: FOI requests reveal that race discrimination employment tribunal claims brought by Metropolitan police officers and staff more than doubled in the last financial year, amidst claims that the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) is targeting Black and Asian staff. (Guardian, 26 November 2025)

26 November: The legal challenge to the proscription of Palestine Action begins in the high court, with co-founder Huda Ammori’s lawyer saying the organisation follows the ‘honourable tradition’ of direct action and civil disobedience. Ammori and her lawyers are told they will be excluded for part of the hearing while secret evidence is taken. (Guardian, 26 November 2025; Guardian, 26 November 2025) 

27 November: As a 31-year-old man is arrested at Manchester airport in connection with plotting the October terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue, it emerges that seven people have been arrested so far in connection with the most lethal antisemitic incident in modern Britain. (Guardian, 27 November 2025)

27 November: A new Statewatch report analyses growing transnational digital security infrastructure, including surveillance of travellers and the spread of watchlists, which reinforce racism and provide new tools of repression for authoritarian states. (Statewatch, 27 November 2025)

28 November: Northern Ireland prosecutors, citing ‘significant evidential developments’, drop charges against two Romanian teenagers accused of raping a schoolgirl in Ballymena, allegations that triggered riots and a violent campaign against foreigners, particularly Roma from eastern Europe. (Guardian, 28 November 2025)

28 November: An inquest jury rules that Giedrius Vasiljevas, a 40-year-old Lithuanian man who was fatally shot by a Metropolitan police firearms officer on 23 November 2023, was ‘lawfully killed’. The coroner raises concerns about the quality of evidence from several officers who lacked meaningful reflection upon their actions. (INQUEST, 28 November 2025)

30 November: Over 100 lawyers who wrote to the Ministry of Justice expressing deep concern that the proposed restrictions on jury trial are ‘an irremediable error’ say that their expertise is being ignored. Jury trials were found to filter out prejudice in an earlier MoJ study. (Guardian, 30 November 2025)

1 December: An investigation reveals that hundreds of children, some only twelve years old, feature on police facial recognition databases, as the government consults on making facial recognition a permanent feature on fixed and mobile cameras across all police forces. (Liberty Investigates, 1 December 2025)

2 December: The IOPC publishes a report on its investigation into the Hillsborough disaster of April 1989, in which 97 people died through police negligence, resulting in no successful prosecutions. The report names twelve officers for gross misconduct and 110 complaints upheld, but none will be heard as officers responsible have died or left the force. (Guardian, 2 December 2025)

4 December: The Home Office admits that the technology used in facial recognition more frequently returns false positives for Black and Asian people than for white people, following the latest round of tests. (Guardian, 5 December 2025) 

4 December: As seven Palestine Action prisoners (part of 33 detained without trial) continue a hunger strike, Prisoners for Palestine criticises a near-total media blackout on what is in effect the largest hunger strike in the UK since the 1981 Irish Republican protests led by Bobby Sands, warning that some have been hospitalised and are close to collapse. (Morning Star, 4 December 2025)

5 December: The Berlin House of Representatives in Germany passes a comprehensive amendment to the General Security and Public Order Act, granting police powers to secretly enter homes to gain access to IT Systems such as smartphones or laptops and install malware such as state Trojans. (Heise, 5 December 2025)

9 December: The Omega Research Foundation and United Against Torture Consortium publish Challenging Repression: A Guide to Addressing the Misuse of Police Weapons in Protests, aimed at supporting those who document and challenge the unlawful policing of protests around the world. (Omega, 9 December 2025)

ASYLUM | MIGRATION| BORDERS| CITIZENSHIP

Asylum and migrant rights

25 November: In evidence to the Justice Committee, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr reveals that the judiciary was given just 24 hours’ notice of government plans to abolish the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal. (HC Justice Committee, 25 November 2025; EIN, 2 December 2025)

28 November: The Home Office refuses a visa for Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown, an 8-year-old child destitute in Jamaica following Hurricane Melissa, to join her parents in the UK, saying she can be cared for by relatives. (Guardian, 28 November 2025)

29 November: A low-paid carer from Ghana with three children, currently on the 10-year route to settlement with nine completed years, cancels all of her in-work benefits, including disability benefit for one of her children, because of significant fears sparked by government proposals to force migrants to wait 20-years for permanent status if they access benefits for more than 12 months. (Guardian, 29 November 2025)

29 November: The government announces a ban on the use of taxis to transport asylum seekers to medical appointments from February 2026, saying they will be ‘strictly limited to exceptional, evidenced cases, including physical disability, pregnancy, or serious illness’ requiring Home Office approval, as concerns are raised about the level at which the threshold will be set. (Guardian, 29 November 2025)

1 December: Home Office figures show a 26 percent fall to 7,271 refugees accepted for resettlement under UN-facilitated schemes in the year to September, compared with the previous year. Half were Afghans whose lives were put at risk by a UK data breach. (Guardian, 1 December 2025)

5 December: A study by Migrant Voice and the University of Warwick finds that the mandatory digital eVisa creates high levels of stress, fear and exclusion, as the system is fraught with errors and technical failures, and employers, landlords, airline staff and border officials lack understanding of its use, impacting access to work, travel, rent, study and public services. Migrants with limited digital literacy, language barriers and disabilities face an even higher risk of exclusion. (Guardian, 5 December 2025)

Borders and internal controls 

26 November: Immigration enforcement officers join South Yorkshire Police in operations targeting food delivery drivers on e-bikes in Sheffield, as the Home Office says Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat will receive information about the locations of asylum hotels. (BBC, 26 November 2025) 

26 November: A new Save the Children report details the harms caused to children on routes from Sudan through Libya to Europe by EU border policies. (Euronews, 26 November 2025)

 28 November: Following Keir Starmer’s pressure on French president Emmanuel Macron to increase interventions to stop ‘small boats’ in the Channel, the French government plans to authorise interventions at sea before ‘passengers’ are taken on. (Guardian, 28 November 2025)

28 November: The EU launches its Pact for the Mediterranean in Barcelona, designed to stem irregular migration from countries of the Maghreb. (EU Observer, 28 November 2025)

29 November: An investigation reveals that Greece has become the testing ground for new border surveillance technologies, bankrolled by the EU and promoted by Germany. (Solomon, 29 November 2025)

2 December: The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act receives Royal Assent, creating new offences and allowing border officers to force new arrivals to remove outer clothing to search for mobile devices and to search inside a person’s mouth for a sim card or small electronic device. The Home Office confirms children can also be subjected to these searches. (Guardian, 1 December 2025; EIN, 2 December 2025)

5 December: In a targeted operation across the country, the Home Office arrests 171 migrant delivery riders working in the ‘gig’ economy, with 60 now in detention awaiting deportation. Recent figures reveal 8,232 arrests made in the year to September 2025. (Eastern Eye, 5 December 2025; BBC, 5 December 2025)

8 December: A new report by the Humans for Rights Network shows that the government’s deterrence policy has led to more state violence and deaths, and an increase in the power of human smugglers, at the UK-France border, without reducing Channel crossings. (Guardian, 8 December 2025) 

Reception and detention

25 November: A survey by Bail for Immigration Detainees finds serious shortcomings in the legal representation of immigration detainees, with fewer than 40 percent of the sample having a lawyer and fewer than one-third having access to legal aid. (EIN, 25 November 2025)

25 November: Epping Forest District Council writes to the prime minister over proposals to procure eight properties for asylum accommodation, urging him to reconsider and intervene to ‘stop this ludicrous proposal’. (BBC News, 25 November 2025) 

26 November: An IMB report on immigration detention raises serious concerns over the routine and unjustified use of force and restraint for operational convenience, in particular handcuffing during hospital transfers and frequent disregard for the dignity of detained people. The report raises deep concerns over staff culture and the lack of trauma-informed approaches. (Guardian, 26 November 2025, EIN, 1 December 2025)

27 November: As temperatures in Dublin, Ireland, drop to 2 degrees, dozens of asylum seekers sleep rough despite nearly 3,500 vacant beds in asylum accommodation, according to volunteers helping refugees. Policy requires male asylum seekers to sleep rough to prove they are homeless before being provided with asylum accommodation. (Irish Times, 27 November 2025)

3 December: The first detainees arrive at Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre, reopened following refurbishment seven years after its closure, in what campaigners, MPs, refugee charities and Oxford City Council call a ‘terrible step backwards’. (BBC News, 5 December 2025)

4 December: A report by the independent monitoring board finds that Gatwick immigration removal centre was ‘volatile and less safe’ in 2024 compared to previous years and raises a catalogue of concerns about the treatment of detainees, as 22 Serco officers are investigated for alleged serious misconduct. (Guardian, 4 December 2025; Independent, 4 December 2025)

6 December: Pro- and anti-asylum rallies take place outside Cameron barracks, Inverness, which is scheduled to accommodate asylum seekers, with Highlands against Hate facing off protesters with placards such as ‘Protect our kids’. (BBC News, 6 December 2025) 

Deportations 

25 November: Government ministers warn that Home Office plans to reform the immigration system will breach the Children Act, while the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government say proposals will increase homelessness, leaving people destitute on the streets. (National, 26 November 2025)

26 November: Thirty asylum seekers held in detention embark on a hunger strike against their detention and planned deportation to France under the ‘one in one out’ policy, as they demand the right to claim asylum in the UK. (Guardian, 26 November 2025) 

27 November: EU partner Egypt launches a racialised crackdown on sub-Saharan Africans, detaining and deporting men, women and children including refugees registered with UNHCR, particularly Sudanese, Eritreans and Cameroonians. (Manassa, 27 November 2025)

1 December: Around 180 academics issue an open letter calling for the immediate release of Mohamed Shahin, an imam who has lived in Italy for 21 years and is threatened with expulsion to Egypt, where he faces torture and even death for comments he made at a Palestine rally where he described 7 October as an act of ‘resistance after years of occupation’. (Middle East Eye, 1 December 2025)

1 December: The EU agrees to remove preferential low tariffs from countries which fail to take back nationals whom member states seek to deport as irregular migrants or refused asylum seekers. (Politico, 1 December 2025)

5 December: The government is in talks with countries including North Macedonia and Kosovo to establish return hubs where refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their home countries can be sent. (Times, 5 December 2025)

5 December: An internal document from Austria’s interior ministry reveals plans to set up ‘transit hubs’ for refused asylum seekers in east Africa, with Uganda the most likely partner, under the new EU deportation regime permitting such agreements with third countries. The Netherlands announced a similar agreement in October. (EU Observer, 5 December 2025)

Crimes of solidarity

27 November: After rescuing 85 people in distress at sea on 26 November, the search and rescue vessel SoS Humanity is ordered by the Italian authorities to take them 1,300 km to Ortona, a seven-day journey, rather than disembark them at the closest safe port as international law requires. (Pressenza, 30 November 2025)

4 December: The trial of 24 humanitarians from Emergency Response Centre International is scheduled to start in Myteline, Lesvos, Greece, on charges including assisting illegal entry and forming a criminal organisation, which carry sentences of 20 years’ imprisonment. The defendants, arrested in 2018 for rescuing and providing first aid for refugees coming to Lesvos in small boats, include Seán Binder and Syrian refugee Sara Mardini. (Front Line Defenders, 3 December 2025) 

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION

2 December: Trans girls can no longer join Girlguiding, the organisation announces, after taking legal advice following the Supreme Court ruling on the Equality Act and a parent’s complaint. (Guardian, 2 December 2025)

3 December: The Women’s Institute will no longer be able to offer membership to trans women from April 2026, it announces, following the Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender earlier in the year. Trans activists say extremists are imposing their views on organisations which have been happily inclusive for decades. (BBC News, 3 December 2025)

HOUSING| POVERTY| WELFARE 

4 December: A survey by Naccom, a national charity of 140 refugee and migrant organisations, shows that refugee homelessness has more than doubled in two years as a consequence of an expanding hostile environment, with recent policy developments set to further increase homelessness and destitution. (Guardian, 4 December 2025) 

8 December: Housing charity Crisis reveals that the poorest people are denied social housing owing to providers’ concerns over affordability, since benefits do not cover all housing costs, and calls on the government to follow the Scottish example of imposing a statutory duty on housing associations to rehouse homeless persons. (Guardian, 8 December 2025)

EMPLOYMENT| EXPLOITATION| INDUSTRIAL ACTION

26 November: Following a campaign by the GMB union, HC-One, the UK’s largest residential care provider, pledges to sponsor any current worker who meets the relevant government criteria, reversing their previous policy to sponsor only ‘business critical’ staff. (Morning Star, 26 November 2025) 

4 December: A disability charity worker is found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked by the national disability charity Sense following her arrest for holding a placard stating she supports Palestine Action and opposes the genocide, failing to disclose the arrest, and posing a threat to the organisation’s ‘brand reputation’ and ‘neutrality’. (Novara Media, 4 December 2025)

5 December: Rising racism and changes to immigration rules are blamed for the collapse in the number of foreign nurses and midwives coming to the UK between April and September, which was half of those registered a year ago, as the number of international staff leaving Britain increases. (Guardian, 5 December 2025)

CULTURE| MEDIA| SPORT

29 November: Organisations including Tell Mama call on GB News to cut ties with contributor Lucy White, after she claims Commons deputy speaker Nusrat Ghani should be barred for being born in Pakistan. The right-wing activist has also attacked other politicians of Pakistani heritage. GB News and TalkTV describe her views as her own, though TalkTV says it has no immediate plans to invite her back. (Guardian, 29 November 2025)

1 December: In a case brought against the Guardian News and Media group by Andy Ngo, a pre-trial libel judgement finds that an Observer music review was defamatory as it described Ngo as an ‘alt-right agitator’. Influencer Ngo argues that the descriptor ‘alt-right’ is synonymous with far-right beliefs and that ‘agitator’ suggests he was not just an ‘armchair observer’. (Press Gazette, 1 December 2025)

4 December: Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and Slovenia announce a boycott of the 2026 Eurovision song contest after organisers allow Israel to compete, citing its actions in Gaza. The countries’ broadcasters say participation conflicts with their public values, while Germany and others welcome Israel’s inclusion as a celebration of cultural diversity. (IBC, 9 December 2025; Guardian, 4 December 2025)

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.

25 November: An attack on a house on Ormeau Embankment, south Belfast, during which windows were smashed and racist graffiti sprayed on the walls, is treated by police as racially motivated. (BBC News, 25 November 2025)

26 November: Police investigate a racially-motivated hate crime on the Fountain estate in Derry, where the home of a Sudanese family was sprayed with ‘locals only’ alongside a cross-hairs symbol. (BBC News, 26 November 2025)

3 December: Two men who joined a loyalist rally outside Belfast City Hall protesting the decision to fly the Palestinian flag for a day are charged with disorderly behaviour for a ‘provocative act’. (Belfast Media, 3 December 2025)

8 December: In the fourth racist attack on a Belfast home of a family who have lived in Northern Ireland for 25 years but are originally from Nigeria, windows are smashed and racist graffiti are scrawled on the front door. (Belfast Media, 8 December 2025)

9 December: Charity Commission chief Mark Simms draws attention to the surge in death and rape threats, violence and harassment creating a ‘culture of fear’ in charities serving refugees and women, and at mosques, churches and synagogues, as the Commission issues guidance on protecting volunteers. (Guardian, 9 December 2025)

This calendar is researched by IRR staff and compiled by Sophie Chauhan, with the assistance of Graeme Atkinson, Sam Berkson, Margaret McAdam and Louis Ordish. Thanks also to ECRE, the Never Again Association, Research Against Global Authoritarianism and Stopwatch, whose regular updates on asylum, migration, far Right, racial violence, employment and policing issues are an invaluable source of information. Find these stories and all others since 2014 on our searchable database, the Register of Racism and Resistance.

The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.

The majority of the IRR’s work is free to access. Please consider supporting our research and analysis by making a donation.

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