Before the Northern Ireland National Assembly convened, executive ministers condemned the recent violence.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the Executive was “clearly” collective in its determination to say no to racism.

She said there was “no place for racism in our society,” adding that it was “absolutely wrong.”

On Thursday afternoon during the recall, MPs supported a Alliance proposal She condemned the recent unrest and rejected “any form of racism” in Northern Ireland.

Ms O’Neill said people from ethnic minorities were afraid to go about their normal daily lives.

“We have health care workers who are afraid to go to work, we have nurses who are afraid to go home,” she said.

These are “the true human impacts” of this kind of racist activity, she added.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said Northern Ireland’s political parties would “send a strong and united message against violence, unrest and racism”.

The fact that some health care workers are considering quitting because of the violence is “deeply disturbing,” Little-Pengelly said, stressing their “enormous” contribution.

She also wanted to acknowledge the “positive contribution of many ethnic minorities” in Northern Ireland.

Violence is always “wrong” and “never the answer,” she added.

Justice Minister Naomi Long said the unrest was not representative of the vast majority of Northern Ireland’s population.

“We have to call it what it is. It’s racism; it’s Islamophobia,” she said.

“If we want to deal with it, we have to call it what it is and stand up against it.”

The leader of the alliance said the people attacked were “part of our community” and “valuable”.

“It is all of our job as political leaders, but also all of our job as a community, to make them feel welcome and safe,” she added.

By Jayne McCormack, BBC News NI political correspondent

It is not often that one hears applause in the Chamber.

But that is exactly what happened several times on Thursday as MPs reflected on the events of the past week.

Members of minority groups sat in the public gallery and watched as politicians addressed them directly, offering words of support and condemnation of what had happened so far.

While recall debates are often described as little more than roundtable discussions, many felt that the seriousness of the situation today requires the presence of our politicians.

In the short term, politicians may find it difficult to change attitudes, but in certain policy areas, such as updating racial equality strategies, the executive is under pressure to act.

Policies that may not seem like much at first glance, however, have practical implications for the representation of these communities and their access to services.

In addition, there is the question of better equipping the PSNI.

When I asked the Secretary of State yesterday whether he could commit to improving the organisation’s funding, he said it was up to the executive to prioritise the funds already available for this year.

Today the First Minister and his deputies told me they are still fighting for the Treasury to improve our funding formula and stressed that the PSNI will not tackle this issue ‘alone’.

In his speech to the assembly, DUP MP for Upper Bann Jonathan Buckley said he wanted to make it “crystal clear” that he condemned the violence “on our streets and across the United Kingdom”.

He expressed his condolences to the families of the Victims of the knife attack in Southport on July 29th in which three young girls died.

SDLP MP for South Belfast Matthew O’Toole welcomed members of the Muslim community to the Chamber.

“We owe them an apology for what they and their community have had to endure in this society and city over the past weeks and days,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist Steve Aiken praised the work of ethnic minority health workers and said he spent several hours with one of his children at Antrim Area Hospital on Wednesday.

He said people in the emergency room were grateful for the “professional medical care they received.”

Mr Aiken said some “very misguided” people thought it was appropriate to attack immigrants.

“It has to stop, it has to stop now,” he stressed.

The Northern Ireland Assembly was convened following a successful petition by the Alliance Party.

This meant that MPs returned from their summer recess to discuss the recent unrest.

This followed a wave of violence in which several shops in the city were attacked after unrest broke out during an anti-immigration protest.

The First Minister and Deputy First Ministers said their shared priority was to counter racism and intimidation.

Since last Tuesday, one day after the murder of three young girls in Southport, violent riots have been breaking out in towns and cities across the United Kingdom.

Social media falsely claimed that the blame lay with someone who had entered the UK illegally.

On Saturday, a cafe was set on fire and several shops were attacked after riots broke out in Belfast.

There were also outbreaks of violence in the city during the night of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Over the weekend, MPs debated a motion from the Alliance Party calling on the Assembly to condemn the vandalism and “targeting of businesses”.

MPs were also asked to acknowledge that the PSNI’s resources were exhausted and “could have been deployed much more effectively elsewhere”.

The Alliance’s push to recall the assembly from its summer recess was supported by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and independent unionist Claire Sugden.

On Monday, Sinn Féin’s Deirdre Hargey said First Minister Michelle O’Neill would cut short a family holiday to return to the Assembly for the debate.

The immigration issue is largely a Westminster issue, but there have been calls for the Executive Office to do more to help refugees living in Northern Ireland.

The recall motion also called on the First Minister and the First Minister’s deputies to complete a refugee integration strategy by the end of the year and replace an “outdated” racial equality strategy.

Unlike England, Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland has no strategy for integrating refugees.

A public consultation on a Strategy draft took place in February 2022, but the power-sharing executive collapsed during this time and the institutions remained suspended for two years.

On Thursday, an anti-racism rally was also held in front of the Parliament building, where politicians came together again to discuss the recent disruption And racist attacks.

The demonstration was organized by unions and community groups.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people took part in an anti-racism rally in Guildhall Square in Londonderry on Wednesday evening.

Organisers said the rally was held as a sign of solidarity with the migrant community in the north-west of the country, in response to scenes of violence that had taken place in Belfast and some other parts of England in recent days.