Right to Remain and These Walls Must Fall join many others in deep mourning and grief for the passing of Dr Pious Nyandoro, our distinguished comrade in the migration justice movement.

Pious was one of the early These Walls Must Fall campaigners, leading our fight against the violence and harm of the hostile asylum and immigration system. For years, Pious generously continued to support our work and stood in passionate solidarity with everyone who was in struggle. His untimely passing hit us all very hard.

Pious’ close colleagues at VVIDY (Voice of Voiceless Immigration Detainees in Yorkshire) have issued the public statement below. To honour Pious’ life, we ask you to share it widely, inviting more people to join the migration justice movement in carrying forward Pious’ work and his vision – to achieve our collective justice, dignity and liberation.

These Walls Must Fall campaigners have paid tribute to Pious.

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Pious. As a fellow These Walls Must Fall campaigner, I was inspired every day by his courage, compassion, and unwavering fight for justice. Pious stood fearlessly for what was right, bringing hope and strength to so many. His voice and spirit will continue to guide us as we forward the work he cared for so deeply. My heart goes out to his family, friends, and all who loved him. May he rest in peace and may we honour his legacy with the same love and determination he showed us all. Manono

I am totally devasted and so is our friends at Right to Remain and These Walls Must Fall. Pious was a passionate man of principle. We learnt a lot from him. I remember we did a lot of research with our campaign with People and Planet and STAR students in Sheffield. I am super proud of the achievements we have accomplished together and I was looking forward to many more especially after our conversation we had on the 7th of June in our event we hosted at Mustard Tree in Manchester. He gave all of us hope, he was optimistic, risilient and a ray of sunshine. Vengai Mutsawu

Maggy Moyo, These Walls Must Fall Organiser, said:

To say I am angry is an understatement. I am angry at this system that violates basic human rights every day while the world turns a blind eye. I am angry that we, as migrants, are reduced to beggars until we can no longer carry the weight, and then another precious life is lost, another statistic of this hostile environment. But Pious, this was not your last act of organising. We will rise in your name. You mentored us, you pushed us to raise our voices, even when they pretended not to listen. You reminded us that fighting for our marginalised communities is not a choice but a duty, and you lived that truth with every breath. The light you carried, they were never ready for. They tried to break you, body, spirit, even your heart, yet you never gave up. You sacrificed yourself for your brothers and sisters, and we will not let that sacrifice be in vain. We carry the torch forward, because migrant justice is the fight of our lives. Thank you for taking me under your wing, for holding my hand, for believing in me when I doubted myself. Thank you for being my coach, my role model, my cheerleader, (mwana wevhu), son of the soil. The great achievements and recognition that These Walls Must Fall has received, the world may not know, but behind them your name was among the giants. I am heartbroken. I am shattered. Yet in my grief, I rise, because you taught me resilience, and because our people still need us.

Vee Smith Uka, one of our former These Walls Must Fall Organisers said:

It is with a broken heart and deep sorrow that I stand to honour the life of our beloved comrade, brother, and friend, Dr Pious H. Nyandoro. Even as I speak, it feels unreal to say “he has passed.” Pious was a presence so strong, so committed, and so alive in our struggles that it is hard to imagine our work, our movement, and even our everyday lives without him. I had the privilege of walking closely with him, These Walls Must Fall Organiser. To me, he was not just a colleague in the fight for justice he was a comrade in the truest sense. A man who stood firmly by your side, through storms and sunshine, reminding you that solidarity is not a slogan but a way of life. Dr Pious carried within him a rare combination: the sharp mind of an intellectual, the courage of a fighter, and the tenderness of a brother. He gave his voice, his energy, and his whole being to the defence of migrants, refugees, and all who are marginalised. For him, this was never charity—it was justice. He believed that every human being deserved dignity, belonging, and peace. And he lived that belief daily, through his words and through his actions. His loss is not only personal to me, it is political for all of us. We have lost a teacher, a fighter, and a visionary. But his spirit remains with us. In every gathering where we raise our voices against injustice, in every act of solidarity we extend to one another, in every young person we inspire to believe that another world is possible there, Pious will live on. For me personally, I will always carry the memory of his laughter, his fierce words when he saw injustice, and his calm reassurance when the weight of struggle became too heavy. He had a way of turning despair into courage, and reminding us that even in the darkest moments, resistance is possible. Comrade Pious, your life was a testimony of courage, sacrifice, and love. You gave so much of yourself, and even in your absence, you continue to give us strength. We grieve deeply, but we also rise in your honour. Rest in power, our beloved comrade. You are forever in our hearts, forever in our struggle.

Rosie Huzzard, another former TWMF Organiser said:

I first met Pious when I was supporting VVIDY with their campaigning work through These Walls Must Fall in 2021. As soon as he joined, his enthusiasm, knowledge and experience was like a lightning bolt of energy to our work. Pious was someone who combined passion and drive for justice with kindness and compassion towards his comrades. He was a talented leader, and committed to the fight to dismantle the government’s hostile environment for migrants. His impact on the world around him is so clear from the outpouring of sorrow and anger from so many he touched. I feel his legacy will live on it the work others will continue now he’s gone. Thank you Pious for encouraging us all to keep fighting, we will fight for you. Rest in power.

Boucka Koffi of VVIDY said:

Our comrade, Dr. Pious Nyandoro, gave his life to migrant justice, liberation, and a world without borders. To honour him is to rise together, organise, resist, and fight relentlessly for the collective freedom and dignity he embodied.

Sarli Nana of Migrants Organise said:

Pious was a committed organiser for migrant justice. I met him in the struggle and last spoke to him at a campaign organising meeting. He believed in human dignity, equality and rights. He lived by his principles and died in the battlefield with the Hostile Environment. His legacy will be sustained by those of us who were organising with him.

We would like to ensure Pious receives a befitting send-off. We would be grateful if you could consider contributing to his memorial fund to cover his funeral expenses.

Rest in Power, Pious.

Right to Remain

Public Statement from VVIDY (Voice of Voiceless Immigration Detainees in Yorkshire) on the Passing of Dr Pious Nyandoro (23 August 2025)

“It is with profound sadness and righteous anger that we announce the passing of our trustee, brother, friend, comrade and beloved father, Dr Pious H. Nyandoro. Dr. Nyandoro was a tireless defender of migrant rights, a voice for the forcibly displaced, and a committed community organiser, writer and mentor whose work was grounded in the struggle for justice, dignity and liberation. His tragic passing is not only a personal loss. It is a political loss, a wound to our collective fight for justice.

The circumstances of his death are a stark reminder that colonialism produces alienation, despair, and deep psychological harm, and the UK’s racist hostile immigration system is a modern expression of this same violence.

The Hostile Environment is designed to destroy lives and livelihoods. It is an architecture of dehumanisation, deliberately engineered to break people through prolonged uncertainty, isolation and state-enforced precarity.

These are not accidental by-products, but the intended effects of a system rooted in colonial and imperial domination. Dr Nyandoro, like so many before him, bore the weight of this systemic violence.

His death forces us to confront the political origins of what is too often dismissed as “private” mental health crisis; a crisis that affect so many people in our community.

This is a devastating loss to his family, to his children to whom he devoted his life, and to the wider global community of resistance he was part and parcel of. We regret that our love for Dr Pious was unable to defeat the state’s dehumanising power.

We honour his unwavering commitment to justice, his deep compassion, and his ability to see liberation not as a distant ideal but as a necessity for survival.

His passing must not be in vain. Let it galvanise us to intensify our fight against the root causes of displacement and the state machinery that enforces it. We will carry forward his work and his vision, until the systems that claimed his life are dismantled.

Rest in Power, Brother Pious. Your struggle lives on in us.”