RISE Projects Director Awale Elmi appeared on BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show to discuss the disproportionality of young Somali men being fatally stabbed and the consequence of parents sending their children back to East Africa to avoid being killed, groomed or being exploited by criminal gangs involved in county-lines.
Speaking along side other Somali community leaders and professionals, Awale explained the complex reasons behind why so many young Somali men are being killed in the UK. Ahead of the studio discussion, RISE Projects worked with BBC producers to undertake a short research to analyse the number of young Somali people fatally stabbed in the UK.
Of the 100 people stabbed to death in the UK so far this, 8% were of Somali heritage. This is particularly concerning when the UK Somali population accounts for less than 0.5% at its highest estimated figure of 300,000. The high number of fatal stabbings has resulted in hundreds of British Somali teenagers are being sent by their parents to East Africa to avoid knife crime in the UK.