Somalis in the United Kingdom

Somalis in the United Kingdom include British citizens and residents born in or with ancestors from Somalia. The United Kingdom (UK) is home to the largest Somali community in Europe, with an estimated 108,000 Somali-born immigrants residing in the UK in 2018 according to the Office for National Statistics. The majority of these live in England, with the largest number found in London. Smaller Somali communities exist in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Cardiff.

The earliest Somali immigrants in the UK were lascars and merchants who arrived in the 19th century. A second small group of seamen came during the Second World War with the Royal Navy, and stayed in search of employment from the British Somaliland (present-day Somaliland). During the 1980s and 1990s, the civil war in Somalia led to a large number of Somali immigrants, comprising the majority of the current Somali population in the UK.

British Somalis are one of the largest Muslim communities in the UK.

Notable British Somalis include notable sports figures, filmmakers, activists and local politicians. They have also established business networks and media organisations.

History and settlement

The Somali community in the UK includes British citizens, refugees, asylum seekers, persons granted exceptional leave to remain, irregular migrants, and Somalis who have moved to Britain after being granted refugee status in other European states. Most Somalia-born residents in England and Wales hold a UK passport.

According to the 2011 Census, 36 per cent of Somali-born residents of England and Wales arrived in the UK during the 1990s. The majority (57 per cent) arrived after 2001, with around 25 per cent arriving between 2001 and 2003.

Early migration

The United Kingdom has historically been tied closely to Somaliland through its involvement in the British Somaliland protectorate. This link has given rise to a long tradition of Somali migration to the United Kingdom. Mobility has played an important part in Somali culture. The first Somali immigrants were seamen and merchants who settled in port cities in the late 19th century, mainly in Cardiff, Liverpool and London. Many of these early sailors came from British Somaliland and worked in the thriving docks. In Cardiff, many lived in boarding houses run by other Somalis. Along with Yemeni seamen, these Somali sailors were among the lascars from the Arab world that were working in the British shipping industry. Following race riots in Cardiff and other cities in 1919, around 600 of the Somali, Egyptian and other residents from the Arab world were evacuated to their home countries. Similar disturbances occurred in Salford in 1921 and South Shields in 1930. Somalis are recorded as living in London back to 1914, having been recruited to fight in the First World War.

A second, small group came during the Second World War with the Royal Navy and stayed in search of employment. They had been recruited as seafarers from parts of the British Empire due to shortages in manpower. Most of these seamen considered their stay in the UK as temporary and had left their families behind. As a result of an act of Parliament passed in 1894, until the 1950s, Somali migrants were legally restricted to working in the shipping industry, were paid at rates of 25% below the standard workforce rate, and legally required to settle only in towns and cities that were centres of shipping. They were mainly concentrated in Cardiff and South Shields, which in 1938 had 116 and 47 Somalian-born sailors, respectively. Consequently, the resident Arabic-speaking populations were typically known as "Somali" since most of the seamen in these ports came from the regions near the Gulf of Aden. In 1953, there were around 600 Somalis living in the UK. When the British merchant navy started to reduce in size in the 1950s, many of these migrants moved to industrial cities such as Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester, where labour was in great demand. The first Somalis to arrive in Sheffield did so in the 1930s. More arrived between the 1940s and 1960s, particularly to work in the city's steel industry. Somalis also worked in the steel industry in South Wales, taking on physically demanding work that did not appeal to the Welsh workers. In 1952, a Somali man was one of the last people to be hanged in Wales, for the murder of a shopkeeper and moneylender in Butetown, Cardiff. His conviction was quashed in 1998.

By the 1960s, there were still only a few Somali women in the United Kingdom. After the British industry started to experience heavy growth, Somali men brought over their wives and families. Somali women subsequently began establishing community organisations in the cities where they resided, some of which still exist to this day. In the 1960s and 1970s, Somali students from British Somaliland also came to study in Britain. Some chose to remain in the United Kingdom, while others returned to Somalia after graduating. Some long-settled Somalis also returned to Somalia in the 1960s, following the country's independence, though many subsequently moved back to Britain as a result of growing instability during the 1980s.

In 1983, when the British government requisitioned civilian ships for the Falklands War, three British-registered sailors of Somali origin were denied employment on the basis of their race. The industry had been outside of the remit of the 1976 Race Relations Act, and discrimination within the industry was significant. In 1983, 90% of Somali seamen living in Cardiff were unemployed. This was upheld as unlawful by an industrial tribunal and an appeal court, and the case contributed to considerable focus in the media on the issue of discrimination in the shipping industry.

Refugees and asylum seekers

During the 1980s and 1990s, the civil war in Somalia lead to a large number of Somali immigrants, comprising the majority of the current Somali population in the UK. Between 1988 and 1994, the favoured destination of people fleeing the civil war was Scandinavia, but by 1999 53 per cent of Somali asylum applications in Europe were made in the UK. Many of these asylum seekers had fled from neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia before migrating to the UK. Many of these refugees were women and children whose men had either been killed or had stayed in Somalia to fight, changing the Somali settlement from one of single seamen to that of refugee communities. Between 1985 and 2006, Somalis figured among the top ten largest country of origin groups of people seeking asylum in the UK. In the late 1980s, most of these early migrants were granted refugee status, while those arriving later in the 1990s more often obtained temporary status.

Some Somali refugees have also been resettled in the UK under the government's Gateway Protection Programme, which was launched in 2004. Under this scheme, refugees designated as particularly vulnerable by the UNHCR are assessed for eligibility under the 1951 Refugee Convention by the Home Office. If they meet the eligibility criteria they are then brought to the UK and granted indefinite leave to remain. The first Somali refugees to be resettled arrived in 2010, and between 2010 and 2012, a total of 418 Somalis were resettled in the UK. Further numbers of Somalis were resettled under the programme in 2013.

People whose asylum applications have been rejected but who remain in the UK constitute one of a number of categories of irregular immigrants. In 2010, 270 Somalis had their asylum claims rejected in final decisions. The British government has a declared policy of not deporting failed asylum seekers to Somalia as it considers it too dangerous for return, although it has forcibly returned people to regions of the country that are more stable and accessible by air, such as Somaliland. In April 2014 the Home Office issued new advice to its case workers, suggesting that it is now safe to return people to the capital, Mogadishu. In a test case in June 2014, a judge granted an injunction to halt that deportation of a Somali man to Mogadishu. Some Somalis had been returned to Mogadishu prior to the issuance of new guidance, and the returns were subject to criticism from members of the Somali community as well as human rights groups and organisations. Of those Somalis whose asylum claims have been declined or whose temporary status had expired, some have voluntarily repatriated. Many others have been subject to indefinite detention in immigration detention centres.

Secondary migration

There has also been some secondary migration of Somalis to the UK from the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. According to refugee expert Jill Rutter, in some locations, secondary migrants make up the majority of the Somali community. An academic article published in 2011 suggests that, since 2000, between 10,000 and 20,000 Somalis in the Netherlands have moved to the UK. The driving forces behind this secondary migration included: a desire to reunite with family and friends; a rise in Dutch opposition to Muslim immigration; Somali opposition to housing policies which forced them to live scattered in small groups all over various cities rather than in a larger agglomerated community; a restrictive socio-economic environment which, among other things, made it difficult for new arrivals to find work; and the comparative ease of starting a business and acquiring the means to get off social welfare in the UK. Research into this relocation also suggests that some Somali migrants in the Netherlands did not intend to end up there as a final destination. Their journeys may have been interrupted in the Netherlands, or they may have had little choice about their destination. As a result, some secondary migration can be seen in the context of the desire to complete an intended migration to the UK.

Naturalisation and grants of settlement

Between 1983 and 1994, the number of Somalis granted British citizenship was generally low, ranging from 40 in 1987 to 140 in 1994. In 1995 the number of grants of citizenship started to rise significantly, reaching a peak of 11,165 in 2004, before falling somewhat in the following years. In 2018, 2,746 Somali nationals were granted British citizenship, accounting for around 1.75 per cent of all naturalisations and making Somali the 18th most common nationality amongst those granted citizenship that year.

According to the 2011 UK Census, 71.5 per cent of Somalia-born residents in England and Wales hold a UK passport. This is the sixth highest proportion amongst foreign-born groups.

In addition to naturalisation, the British government can grant settlement to foreign nationals. This confers upon foreign nationals permanent residence in the UK, without granting them British citizenship. Grants of settlement are made on the basis of various factors, including employment, family formation and reunification, and asylum (including to deal with backlogs of asylum cases). The total number of grants of settlement to Somali nationals was 1,952 in 2017, out of a total of 65,102 for all foreign nationals, compared to 4,900 out of 241,192 in 2010.

Demographics

Population and distribution

As of 2018, the UK was believed to have the largest Somali community in Europe. The Office for National Statistics estimates that 108,000 Somali-born immigrants were resident in the UK in 2018. The 2011 UK Census recorded 99,484 Somali-born residents in England, 1,886 in Wales, 1,591 in Scotland, and 88 in Northern Ireland. The previous census, held in 2001, had recorded 43,532 Somali-born residents. This was widely considered an undercount, and in response, the Office for National Statistics employed the services of a Somali community adviser in the run-up to the 2011 Census in order to address possible under-enumeration of Somalis.

Estimates of the Somali-born population are complicated by the exchange of Somalis both arriving in the UK and those deciding to return to Somalia or elsewhere. According to academic Laura Hammond, this mobility is common within the Somali diaspora, with many having residences in both Somalia and the UK. Somali immigrants from the more stable regions of Somalia often vacation in those areas for extended periods during the summer. The United Nations Development Programme estimated in 2009 that 10,000 Somalis were visiting the northwestern Somaliland region from the UK annually, though Hammond argues that this total may also include people simply transferring through the UK.

The ethnic classification of Somalis in Britain has varied over the years. During the early 20th century, Somalis were administered as "Somali" or "Arab" in tandem with Egyptians, Sudanese, Zanzibaris and Yemenis. Along with other groups from the Arab world, Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia, these populations were also sometimes collectively identified in a non-racial, political sense with the epithet "black" or its then neutral equivalent "coloured" in order to underscore their common experience of colonial subordination.

Presently, there is no "Somali" option amongst the tick-box answers to the ethnicity question in the UK Census. Respondents who identify as Somali can, however, indicate this through a write-in response option. Following lobbying from Somali and other groups, a new "Arab" tick-box was introduced in the 2011 Census. According to sociologists Peter J. Aspinall and Martha Judith Chinouya, qualitative findings indicate that "groups from northern Africa, the Horn of Africa, and some parts of the eastern coastline and islands of Africa may not identify themselves as black African. It was felt that they don't see themselves as black or African and might describe themselves by nationality specifically (eg, Somali or Sudanese), perhaps Afro-Arabs, or Arab-African". Aspinall and Lavinia Mitton note that "those from Somalia may consider themselves to be Arab-African rather than Black African because of their religion and physical features". The Policy Research Centre argued that "the inclusion of Arab will help refine the British Muslim picture as many Arabic speaking British citizens who are Muslim, as well as many who are not, could not find an appropriate category, and selecting from 3 or 4 near matches". However, it cautioned that "the new Arab ethnic category will give us a clearer picture, but could confuse the Somali ethnic count ..this may lead to challenges in accurately sizing citizens of Somali heritage. Such respondents will have to choose between Arab as a linguistic choice and Black African as a geographical and/or racial choice. Moreover, because of such community drives to get Somalis more noticed, it is likely Somali responses under the Black section will be split between African and Other Black". Question testing with Somalis in Wales in the run-up to the census revealed inconsistent answering of the ethnicity question. Some Somali participants in the test ticked the "African" box, others wrote in "Somali", and one person ticked both "African" and "Arab". Some Somali participants in both Wales and England believed that there was a need for a Somali tick-box, whereas others felt that the African option was sufficient. No Somali, Egyptian, Berber, Kurdish or Iranian respondents chose to identify solely as Arab. Similarly, question testing in Scotland found that "Somalian" was the most frequent write-in response given under the "African or Caribbean: Other" heading. "Somalian" was also the most common write-in response under "Other ethnic group: Other".

When the 2011 Census was conducted, 37,708 residents in England and Wales wrote in "Somali" and 5,226 wrote in "Somalilander" under the "Black/African/Caribbean/Black British" heading in response to the ethnicity question. 6,146 wrote "Somali" and 826 "Somalilander" under the "Other ethnic group" heading. Others also wrote in "Somali" or "Somalilander" under the "White" (743 "Somali" and 151 "Somalilander"), "Mixed/multiple ethnic groups" (621 "Somali"), and "Asian/Asian British" (257 "Somali") headings. In Scotland, 238 people wrote in "Somali" under the African heading. With regard to the "Arab" tick-box and write-in ethnic identity responses, the National Association of British Arabs indicates that "many people responded to the question in terms of a refined categorisation, and specifically those Arabs from North Africa and Somalia", but notes that it is uncertain how many of these individuals responded in the general 'Arab' box. The organisation categorises Somalia-born immigrants as Arabs. Based on census data, it indicates that they are the largest population of British Arabs by country of birth. December 2018 saw the publication of the 2021 Census White Paper, which proposes further changes to the ethnicity classification - specifically, the addition of a tick box for the Roma population, and a ‘search as you type’ facility to make it easier for people of Somali origin to use the write in under ‘Black African’.

As with estimates of the total Somali population in the UK, estimates by city vary significantly between sources. This problem is partly the result of defining "Somali", with some sources estimating the Somali-born population only, and others estimating the size of the ethnic Somali community, including second and subsequent-generation British Somalis. The 2011 census found that 65,333 Somali-born people were resident in London. Other sources suggest that Cardiff has the highest number of British-born people of Somali heritage anywhere in the UK, though the number of Somali-born immigrants there is relatively low.

Peter J. Aspinall argues that "the census is primarily designed to serve the needs of government and cannot meet the requirements of local authorities where particular groups outwith the category system may cluster. Examples include the Somalis and Yemenis in Sheffield, the City Council arguing that a new approach to capturing a wider range of ethnic groups is needed where their numbers are not significant nationally". A 2003 report prepared for the London Borough of Hackney noted that: "Lack of sensitivity in monitoring has contributed to the Somali community's—often desperate—needs being overlooked". The final report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, published in March 2021, argued that "2 categories that could in future be helpfully sub-divided are White Other which does not distinguish between West Europeans and East Europeans, and Black African which does not distinguish between sub-Saharan African people in general and Somalis who are now a substantial group in their own right".

Gender and age distribution

The Somali-born population of the UK includes a disproportionate number of females in comparison with the general population. Analysis of data from the Labour Force Survey by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggests that 61 per cent of the Somali-born population in 2006/07 was female. Of the 101,370 Somali-born residents of England and Wales recorded by the 2011 Census, 57,042 (56.3 per cent) were female. The equivalent figure for the UK as a whole from the previous census, held in 2001, was 54 per cent. Expressed as a sex ratio, the 2011 figure suggests that there were 78 Somali-born men per 100 Somali-born women, compared to the overall sex ratio for England and Wales of 97 men per 100 women.

A number of explanations for this high proportion of female Somali-born immigrants have been advanced. The IPPR suggests that it might be due to more men than women being killed in the Somali Civil War, leaving women as refugees, that some Somali men have left Britain for work in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, where their employment prospects are better, and also that some Somali men have left the UK in order to return to Somaliland, whilst their families stay behind to enable the completion of education. The civil war in Somalia resulted in a change in the composition of the Somali population in the UK. Prior to the 1980s, it was primarily composed of single seamen; as a result of the war it became a refugee community with an increased proportion of women and children.

Harris states that the divorce rate for Somalis in the UK is high. She explains: "If a man is unemployed, brings in no income, spends what his wife earns or receives from social security on khat, will not help with domestic chores, and colludes with nagging in-laws – then a woman may feel better off without him". Writing in 2006, refugee education expert Jill Rutter reported that research suggested between 20 and 70 per cent of Somali households in Britain were headed by single females. In the 2011 Census, 61 per cent of families in England and Wales where the head of the household was born in Somalia consisted of lone parents with dependent children. This was the highest proportion of all countries of birth. 7.6 per cent of Somali-born lone parents were men, around half of the proportion of male lone parents in the population as a whole.

According to the 2011 UK Census, the Somali-born population in England and Wales is on average young. 79 per cent of Somali immigrants were under 45 years of age compared with 58 per cent of the general population. Partly due to the Somali-born population's younger age structure, 47 per cent of Somali immigrant families included three or more dependent children compared with a mean of 7 per cent for all families in England and Wales.

Language

The 2011 UK Census recorded 85,918 people living in England and Wales who spoke Somali as their main language. This represented 0.16 per cent of the population, and 2.06 per cent of speakers of non-English main languages. Somali speakers were present in only a few wards (16 per cent). The number of Somali speakers recorded in Scotland was 1,050.

Some Somalis in the UK also speak Arabic, another Afro-Asiatic tongue and the other official language of Somalia, with about 15 per cent of Somalis in England being fluent in it according to a 2006 report by the Foreign Policy Centre. The Somali community in the UK also includes a small minority of Chimwiini speakers.

According to the 2011 UK Census, 73,765 of a total 101,131 Somalia-born residents in England and Wales indicated that English was not their main language. Of those, 54,369 individuals indicated that they could speak the language well or very well, 16,575 indicated that they could not speak the language well, and 2,821 indicated that they could not speak the language at all. 27,366 of the Somalia-born residents reported that English was their main language.

Religion

The majority of Somalis, in the UK and elsewhere, are Muslims. The majority adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam and the Shafi`i school of Islamic jurisprudence. According to the 2011 UK census, 94,197 or roughly 93% of Somalia-born residents in England and Wales are Muslim. They constitute one of the largest Muslim groups in the UK. Mosques are the primary centres for religious and social gatherings, and also play an important role in sharing information. Traditionally, Somalis attended masjids established by the more settled Muslim communities from Asian and Arab countries, though there are now a small number of mosques operated by Somalis.

Research conducted for the London Borough of Camden, published in 2002, notes that levels of religious adherence and interpretations of Islam within the Somali community varies according to social class. Overall, the research suggested that Somali migrants' adherence to Islam tended to increase in the UK, as it "offers a unique common denominator in constructing a specifically Somali identity".

Qualifications

Levels of education amongst Somali-born adults in the UK are low relative to many other foreign-born groups and to the British-born population. Analysis of Labour Force Survey data by the Institute for Public Policy Research, published in 2008, shows that in 2006/07, 48 per cent of the working-age Somali-born population of the UK had no qualifications. 6 per cent had GCSEs at grades A*-C or equivalent foreign qualifications, and 19 per cent had A-levels or their equivalent. The remaining 27 per cent were classified as having "other qualifications". The IPPR note that it is often difficult to classify foreign qualifications, and hence a higher proportion of foreign-born populations are classified in this category than the UK-born population. When immigrants' qualifications are classified as "other", they note, they are often of a high level.

According to the 2011 Census, out of a total of 89,022 Somali-born residents aged 16 and over in the UK, 55 per cent had completed up to a lower secondary education ( ISCED Level 2), 25 per cent had completed up to an upper secondary education (ISCED Level 3), 20 per cent had completed up to the first stage of tertiary education (ISCED Level 5), and 0.3 per cent had completed up to the second stage of tertiary education (ISCED Level 6). By comparison, 29 per cent of all foreign-born residents aged 16 and over had completed up to a lower secondary education, 24 per cent had completed up to an upper secondary education, 46 per cent had completed up to the first stage of tertiary education, and 0.9 per cent had completed up to the second stage of tertiary education.

According to the IPPR, the relatively low level of education among Somali migrants in the UK can be attributed to their migratory history and the situation in their country of origin. They note that, like many other refugee and migrant communities, early Somali migrants tend to be relatively well educated, but later arrivals, including family members of early migrants, are less well qualified. Labour migrants arriving prior to 1988 were generally literate in either English or Arabic, although few had completed secondary education. Many of the initial wave of refugees from the Somali Civil War who started to arrive from 1988 onwards were well educated, with many possessing secondary education and some holding degrees. According to the IPPR, the educational profile of Somali migrants subsequently changed again, because of the impact of the civil war on education in Somalia. In the north, including Somaliland, the majority of schools in urban areas were destroyed, along with higher education institutions. In the south, "education has been completely destroyed by the fighting". While some schools have been rebuilt and have reopened, the IPPR reports that "younger Somalis who have come directly from Somalia will not have attended university and are likely to have had a very interrupted education or none at all".

Employment

In 2009, Somali-born migrants had the lowest employment rate among all immigrants in the UK. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show high rates of economic inactivity and unemployment amongst Somali immigrants. In the three months to June 2008, 31.4 per cent of Somali men and 84.2 per cent of Somali women were economically inactive (the statistics include students, carers and the long-term sick, injured or disabled in this group). Of those who were economically active, 41.4 per cent of the men and 39.1 per cent of the women were unemployed. Employment rates were 40.1 per cent for men and 9.6 per cent for women. The male employment rate in 2008 rose from 21.5 per cent in 1998. Writing in 2013, Jill Rutter states that "over the last 10 years, the employment rate of the Somalia-born population has rarely been above 20 per cent of the 16–64-year-old population".

A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research attributes the low employment rate to the newness of the Somali community and to the fact that most immigrants came in search of asylum rather than through labour migration channels. Research suggests that refugees in general appear to have more difficulty accessing employment than other groups. Many Somalis have had difficulty getting the qualifications that they have gained in Somalia recognised in the UK. Other main employment barriers included lack of references and prior work experience in the UK, unfamiliarity with the UK job culture, discrimination, over-reliance on word-of-mouth for job openings rather than employment centres and classifieds, and lack of fluency in the English language. The IPPR suggests that the high proportion of Somali households that are headed by a single woman may mean that childcare is an additional barrier to Somali women entering employment. Additionally, asylum seekers are also not normally allowed to work for payment while their claims are being processed, although they can request permission to work if they have waited longer than 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claim.

Analysis of Labour Force Survey (LFS) data by academic Lavinia Mitton suggests that 22 per cent of Somalia-born adults in the UK have experienced difficulty finding and keeping work due to a lack of English-language ability. Mitton and Aspinall also argue that logistic regression analysis of LFS data from 2003, 2006 and 2009 indicates that an ethnic penalty existed for Somalis even after other factors impacting employment, like English language proficiency, work experience, health, age, religion and marital status, had been taken into consideration.

According to the Home Office, 64 per cent of Somali refugees had a low level of English language skills at the time of their asylum decision in the UK, which hindered their ability to find employment. A further 28 per cent had medium fluency, and 8 per cent had high proficiency in the language. Employment rates also steadily increased over time, with 20 per cent of the refugees in employment 8 months after the asylum decision, 28 per cent in employment after 15 months, and 39 per cent in employment after 21 months.

According to the 2011 UK Census, there were 26,926 Somalia-born residents aged 16 and over in employment in England and Wales. Of these immigrants, the majority worked in elementary occupations (26 per cent), with the proportion working in these occupations higher amongst those who had arrived in the UK between 2001 and 2011 than amongst earlier-arriving Somalis. These elementary occupations were the second most common occupations among foreign nationals as a whole, and the most common occupations for individuals who were not proficient in English. The next most common occupations among Somali immigrants were caring, leisure and other service occupations (14 per cent), process, plant and machine operatives (14 per cent), sales and customer service occupations (11 per cent), professional occupations (10 per cent), associate professional and technical occupations (8 per cent), administrative and secretarial occupations (7 per cent), managers, directors and senior officials (5 per cent), and skilled trade occupations (5 per cent).

According to Trust for London, at 37 per cent in 2015–2016, Somalia is the only country of birth for London residents where male worklessness (the proportion of the working-age population who are unemployed or economically inactive) is above 30 per cent. Female worklessness for those born in Somalia was 71 per cent.

Culture

Music

Prominent Somali musicians based in the UK include Aar Maanta, who produces an eclectic mix of styles blended with traditional Somali music, such as the classical oud-centred ''Qaraami'' ("love songs" in Arabic) style of the 1940s. Poly Styrene (born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said), whose father was Somali, was a member of the punk rock band X-Ray Spex, and later a solo artist. Ahmed Ismail Hussein Hudeidi, who died in London of COVID-19 in April 2020 after having settled in the city, was described by the BBC as "a founding father of modern Somali music".

Media

The BBC Somali Service is a radio station transmitted in the Somali language around the world. The majority of Somalis in the UK listen to the BBC Somali Service for news and information. While many listen at home via satellite radio or the Internet, others listen in groups at Somali shops, restaurants or mosques.

Somali Eye Media is a media organisation based in London and set up in 2003 by Adam Dirir, a prominent member of the Somali community. It publishes the magazine ''Somali Eye'' quarterly, and operates Somali Voice Radio, a radio station, through Sound Radio 1503 AM. Two other UK-based Somali radio stations are Somali On Air and Nomad Radio. Bristol Community FM features a weekly chat show that is hosted by Somali Women's Voice.

There are also a few weekly and monthly Somali newspapers available in the UK in both Somali and English, including ''Kasmo'', ''Jamhuuriya'', and ''The Somali Voice''. Other magazines and newspapers have failed due to poor readership figures. A 2006 survey by the International Organization for Migration suggests that Somalis in the UK prefer to read newspapers such as ''Metro'' to improve their English-language skills, although listening to radio was more popular. In 2007, five emerging Somali authors (including Adam Dirir) published ''Silent Voices'', an anthology about Somali life in Britain.

Prominent Somali media figures in the UK include Rageh Omaar, a television news presenter and a writer, and advocate for the Somali community. He received the 2002–2003 Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy award for the best TV journalist. Omaar was formerly a BBC
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