UK terrorism adviser calls for national security discussion on migration following Belfast knife attack

The UK's independent terrorism adviser Jonathan Hall has called for a national security discussion on migration after a 30-year-old Sudanese man granted refugee status in 2023 was charged with attempted murder following a knife attack in Belfast. Hall told BBC Radio 4 that it is "absolutely legitimate to talk about immigration in the context of national security" and questioned whether foreign nationality and recent migration are becoming more relevant to the national security picture. He acknowledged that while the Belfast incident does not appear to be a state security threat, it has caused significant social disruption and raised questions about whether certain countries of origin correlate with higher risks of serious offences or state threat activity. Hall also referenced Donald Trump's November National Security Strategy, which criticized European migration policies, though he noted no European leaders have publicly accepted Trump's assertions. The UK's Ministry of Justice does not collect statistics on immigration status of convicted criminals, but researchers from Oxford's Migration Observatory found that in 2024, the foreign national share of convictions in England and Wales (13%) matched the foreign national share of the wider population, though conviction rates vary by nationality.