Violence against refugees reaches new high
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Two thousand racial attacks have been inflicted on asylum-seekers who have been dispersed around Britain under a government programme that began two years ago.
The figure, disclosed by the Home Office, calls into question the assumption that Britain has been more welcoming to asylum-seekers than other European states, including Germany and France.
It also raises doubts about the validity of the dispersal programme, which was introduced by the Government to take pressure off local authorities in London and the South-east, and led to asylum-seekers being sent to Hull, Sunderland, Glasgow and other cities. Nearly 100 of the "racial incidents" have been reported in Sunderland and the Home Office said it had stopped dispersing asylum-seekers to there.
A spokesman for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture said the scale of attacks showed that the programme should not have been implemented. He said: "We warned from the outset that the likelihood was that people were going to end up in disadvantaged areas where they were likely to be greeted with hostility by local people. That has now happened in towns and cities across the country."
Asylum support groups said that levels of attacks had been less in areas where money had been spent on community development programmes to make local people more aware of why asylum-seekers were being housed nearby.
The suspension of the dispersal programme in Sunderland follows the fatal stabbing of Peyman Bahmani, 30, an Iranian, last month. An 18-year-old man has been charged with murder, violent disorder and racially aggravated assault in connection with the incident.
An Iranian refugee also had his face and back slashed after confronting robbers in a subway in the city 18 months ago and swastikas have been sprayed on Asians' vehicles this year.
Growing anger among asylum-seekers has led to protests in the city at the levels of violence against them and claims that they have been given insufficient protection against attacks by the police and the Home Office's National Asylum Support Service (Nass), which allocates accommodation.
By the end of last year, more than 40,000 asylum-seekers were staying in Nass accommodation after being dispersed throughout the country.
The Government is setting up a network of centres to house refugees but thousands are still being placed in council-run and privately owned rented accommodation approved and paid for by Nass.