Last month Migrants Organise and our allies came together in Yorkshire for the Solidarity Knows No Borders Summit 2025. The summit was a valuable time to reflect on the racist riots of August 2024 . Our organiser ,Sarli Nana, shares more:
“On 26th April 2025, 50 organisers from Coventry, Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, London and from across Yorkshire came together in Sheffield to reflect on the summer 2024 racist riots as part of the Solidarity Knows Borders (SKNB) regional summits.
The summit organised by Migrant Organise and partners, was one of the five themed summits as part of action planning to inform the SKNB national summit later in autumn.
Participants felt powerful
In organising tradition, the summit kicked off with a set of ‘rounds’ question to delve into how people were feeling, especially with regards to a hostile political climate as well as the rise of the far right.
Desptie the broader hostile context, it was reasurring to know that a large number of our community felt energised and powerful by being in the room with many migrant justice organisers. This affirmed our position that creating spaces to come together and learn and strategise is so important.
But it’s also vital to note the gathering also heard testimonies on how people were impacted by the racist riots. People felt scared, frustrated and angry.
The subsequent community mobilisation- where thousands of peolpe from Sheffield to London to Liverpool—mobilised to claim the streets and send a clear message: racism, fascism, Islamophobia and hatred against migrants and refugees have NO place in our communities- was of course reassuring to people.
A panel discussion was very engaging on the issues and small group discussions focused on specific themes, power mapping and action planning.
Summit makes strong call for the release of a sister
One of the highlights of the summit was the powerful call by all participants for the release of our friend and organiser, Fatou is being held in Derwentside immigration detention centre. She was initially detained following a routine visit to a reporting center in Liverpool, then transferred to Manchester and ultimately to Derwentside, a facility located over 160 miles from her home.
We are demanding her release.
A call for more collaboration between policy change advocates and grassroots organisers.
The keynote speaker for the day, Alba Kapoor, Head of Policy at Runnymede Trust spoke about the UK’s problem of collective amnesia on issues of racism and racial justice. She said the issues are quickly forgotten and buried. This is our collective challenge, she said. We can’t just wait for another crisis; we need to keep organising. In last year’s riots there was a denial by the media and politicians to name the riots as racism and Islamophobia – which they were. It was all about individual thuggery and violence, not structural and systemic racism which is never properly addressed.
The government’s new immigration bill will only make things worse, Alba predicted. The Bill brings together new types of surveillance of migrants, the expansion of the hostile environment, the use of counter terror measures against people seeking asylum etc. Alba called for more collaboration between policy change advocates and grass roots organisers to counter the escalation of the racist Hostile Environment.
The racist riots were a reminder of how racism can destroy communities.
On a panel discussion about the riots Melinda Mo Martinez from the City of Sanctuary Sheffield spoke about how we need to bring people together, to break down divides between differently positioned people. “We need to reach different audiences” she said.
- Alba Kapoor from the Runnymede Trust asked how do we produce our own counter narratives against government representations? Their narratives are designed to distract people from inequality and the failures of the government.
- Ibtisam Al Farah from Sisters Not Strangers said we need to believe in change, in living together and in peace. We all have a right to live safe and happy, loved, respected, she said.
- Myself (Sarli Nana) from Migrants Organise said: “across Yorkshire racism is an issue. The riots were a reminder of how racism can destroy and divide communities and harm people. The way to defeat this is by building power through a grassroots migrant led movement.”
- Sahail Chohan, an anti-racism campaigner, agreed. He said he’s never seen things this bad. He spoke about the racist anti-immigrant far right attacks on migrants to gain votes. Politicians identify anti-racists as the problem, not the racists or racism. He said people were disappointed with the current government which seems no different from the previous one.
Everyone agreed that people with lived experience of fascist racist violence and the hostile immigration system should be at the forefront of discussion.
Solidarity in the wake of the riots has given us hope; our organising is more needed more than ever before.
- Mariam Yusuf of Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) spoke about organising work to educate and engage people about refugees in Greater Manchester. Rich work was going on before the riots to do this work, but the riots have made people fearful to engage with local communities. Yet this work is more needed than ever before.
- Loraine Mponela from CARAG – Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group, a grassroots migrant led community organisation spoke powerfully of her experiences during the riots, both the feeling of fear and threat, and the support offered in the racial justice network. She also spoke of the personal impacts on her life and mental health from the riots, and of the hope that solidarity in the wake of the riots has given her.
This summit was one of five Migrants Organise summits happening around the country where people focus on different issues related to migrant justice -including housing, healthcare, hostile surveillance, health, legal aid and racism.
In the autumn the groups will meet and pull together the ideas coming out of the regional summits to develop solutions for more effective and powerful migrant led migrant justice movement.
Migrants Organise provides a platform for refugees and migrants to organise for power, dignity and justice. We combine advice and support for individuals subjected to hostile immigration policies with grassroots organising, advocacy, research and campaigning to dismantle structural racism.
Read more about our organising work.
