Sabir Zazai: Scotland dodged riots as refugees better integrated

The National

04-05-2025

Swathes of England descended into chaos in July and August last year after the fatal mass stabbing of children at a dance class in Southport, Merseyside – following fake online rumours that the perpetrator was a Muslim refugee.
But riots never spread to Scotland, something the Scottish Refugee Council's chief executive, Sabir Zazai puts down to the country's approach to integrating migrants.
Zazai, himself a refugee from Afghanistan, told the Sunday National: 'We have taken a rights-based whole-society approach to integration in Scotland and since 2013, the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy is heralding a new course to building and expanding diverse and integrated communities across Scotland.'
The strategy aims to ensure that refugees are 'included in and contribute to society and to their communities' from the first day they arrive in Scotland.
He said the strategy meant refugees were seen not as 'a threat or a burden but as people who have so much to contribute to our society'.
Asked whether this had helped Scotland avoid last year's riots, Zazai (above) said: 'Partly that, partly how we work together, partly it is the framework that has been created as part of the successful delivery of New Scots engaging with the police, engaging with other authorities, when the riots were happening we were here, speaking with the police, speaking with local authorities, speaking with others, looking at how we avoid a situation like this.
'I'm not getting into Scottish exceptionalism, we do have our own issues here as well, the riots could have been worse here, too but we do have those frameworks.'
Scotland has proportionately lower rates of immigration than the rest of the UK, taking in around 6% of the total number of immigrants compared with a population share of 8%.
The country also has more positive attitudes about immigration than the UK, with data showing that 38% of Scots said more people should come to the country, versus 22% of people in the UK as a whole. When asked whether it should be reduced, 28% of Scots said immigration should be reduced against 48% of people across the UK.
Zazai called on the UK Government to follow Scotland's lead, saying: 'In Scotland, we have that strategy, it's world-renowned, it's been flagged by the [UN Refugee Agency] as the best model for integration and the UK Government has got an opportunity to learn from that.
'We do have an opportunity in the UK to learn from the devolved government's approach to refugee integration, to create a UK-wide integration strategy and invest in that. Integration needs investment, you cannot expect people to sound like us and be part of our society when you put them below the poverty line and expect them to rebuild their lives.'
As well as being beneficial for society, Zazai said there was a moral imperative for Britain to take in asylum seekers, adding: 'When people arrive, fleeing from some of the most dreadful conflicts around the world, it's everyone's responsibility to help them rebuild their lives.'
Zazai also accused Labour of aping the far-right with some of their policies, especially a new policy to publish the ethnicities of criminals awaiting deportation, which critics say will result in 'league tables' of the worst-offending groups.
After British nationals, the worst-offending groups are Albanians, Poles and Romanians – none of which are in the top nationalities of people claiming asylum in the UK.
He said: 'Whether it's the criminal league tables or preventing refugees from seeking citizenship, the UK Government has announced a number of headline-grabbing measures. These are hostile statements which only increase divisions and fuel misinformation in our communities.'
(Image: Henry Nicholls/PA Wire)
Zazai added: 'We've got to take that whole society approach and not divide communities by labels in that way. That is what the far-right does.'
On 'league tables', Zazai said that they would create the impression that foreigners were responsible for more crime than in reality, adding: 'The criminal league tables, the Government would never do an achievement league table of refugees.'
He also blasted Labour's citizenship ban on asylum seekers who arrive in the country illegally – such as by arriving in small boats – saying that getting his British passport was a major moment for him in feeling part of society.
He said: 'Citizenship was an important moment in my own journey. That sense of belonging and that sense of being part of a society starts at that moment.'
The UK Government was approached for comment.