"Go back home, you're not wanted here"
"There's too many rag heads around here"
"F*ck you muslims"
"I've been working all my life and they're getting f*cking everything"
These are just a few of the things that have been shouted at the people Refugee Action works with in the last year, since we began logging the incidents of hate crime our clients experience. They say words can never hurt you, but we all know that's not true. Words have power – hate starts with words and grows into violence.
Violence like a 13-year-old boy being beaten by five adult men. Or an 11-year-old boy being hit around the head and chased with a knife through the park near his home. Or the every day grind of threats that refugees experience like people gathering outside their house with dogs to intimidate them and throwing dirty nappies, cigarette butts and other rubbish into their garden.
Refugees came here to escape fear, to what they thought was a safe country. But hate crime is destroying their hope for safety. Despite the laws against hate crime and the increase in reported hate crimes in recent years, the number of hate crimes being referred by police to the Crown Prosecution Service has fallen. We want to know why. If we understand the system, we can all be part of providing better protection for refugees and all people who experience hate crime.
Petition
We are calling on the Home Secretary to report on why more hate crimes are not being referred to the Crown Prosecution Service – SIGN THE PETITION.
