OPINION: Britain still fails those seeking sanctuary - one year on from the riots

One year after the 2024 riots, the UK's leading Jewish refugee charity warns government rhetoric is fuelling fear and division

One year on from the 2024 riots, where do we find ourselves as a country?

As the recent ‘The State of Us’ report from British Future attests, our society remains fractured by social tension.

Yes, only a small minority supported last summer’s appalling violence—and we know that the compassionate majority remains far stronger. But in recent weeks we’ve seen just how little it can take for tensions to spill over. The appalling acts of violence outside the asylum hotel in Epping and hateful scenes in Northern Ireland are a warning of what happens when we let empathy slide. As Jews, we know all too well how dangerous that can be.

Yet too often our political leaders fail to bring us together.

Dangerous references to an ‘Island of Strangers.’ Measures barring many refugees from ever becoming citizens. Language that dehumanises people seeking sanctuary. Time and again, the government has failed to forge cohesion or show solidarity—and taken a stance incompatible with our Jewish values of solidarity and welcome.

It’s simply not good enough for ministers to claim that migration harms social cohesion—as the Deputy Prime Minister did last week—without taking meaningful action to enhance integration. Politicians must remember the fear many felt during last summer’s riots before indulging in divisive rhetoric.

And we know that a better approach is possible. The implementation of the 56-day ‘move-on’ period trial and the scrapping of the Rwanda plan were important moves. But they must not be the exception—but the rule.

So it’s clear: we need a braver, more responsible approach from our elected representatives.

But that alone is not the full story of the UK.

Every day, HIAS+JCORE sees the power of connection and community when people—from all walks of life—come together. And when we hear each other, share stories, and truly listen, we find so much common ground in our shared humanity.

This is the moral voice of Britain our government needs to tune in to, not those who echo far-right talking points.

One year on, it remains shameful that so many refugees and people seeking asylum, including those we work with, were left terrified—in what should be an island of sanctuary.

Once, it was our community who needed safety and solidarity in this country as refugees. By next year, we hope the government has given those rebuilding here far more cause to feel welcome.