The report is published against the backdrop of the third consecutive summer where violent disorder has broken out targeted at migrants or those perceived to be migrants, the most recent occurring after a horrific knife attack by a Sudanese man in north Belfast in June 2026.

The Migration Justice Project at Law Centre NI is the largest provider of free legal immigration advice in Northern Ireland.

Its policy and research officer Róise McCann told Human Rights First the organisation had received abusive phone calls and had been targeted on X, where posts falsely claimed it was “brainwashing” people and directed hostile comments at its staff. Ms McCann said: “We have received abusive phone calls. We came off X for a while due to the proliferation of far right and anti-migrant rhetoric – we no longer see it as an effective way to keep in touch with the sector and broader supporters of our work.”

Sinead Marmion, a solicitor specializing in immigration law at Phoenix Law and chair of the Immigration Practitioners’ Lawyers Group has also been subject to abuse on X. She said: “Fewer people are taking up these cases because they’re not well paid, they’re complicated, and there is now the risk of attacks which are scaring more people off. I’m more careful now about who I tell what I do, and I’m guarded in public.”

In 2024 the Law Society removed its publicly available list of immigration practitioners and, following the disorder in June 2026, also removed its search function for solicitors working in immigration.

President of the Law Society, Mark Boland, responding to the report, told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster that report largely confirmed what the society had already heard from its members. Having carried out a short survey of members the society was told that solicitors working in immigration and several other fields had been “threatened for carrying out their normal work”. Mr Boland stated that he was glad that the report brought these issues into the public domain and highlighted the impact that threats on solicitors have on the rule of law and access to justice.

Human Rights First, issuing recommendations to the Law Society, stated that they should develop practical security guidance for immigration and asylum practitioners, including advice on doxxing, office safety, online abuse, public practitioner listings, client confidentiality, and responding to threats against lawyers and staff.