Britain “will not tolerate intolerance”, the office of Prime
Minister David Cameron has said, after a series of racist incidents were
reported following its decision to leave the European Union.
Number 10 Downing Street came out on Monday with the warning,
less than a week after the country voted to leave the EU in a referendum.
“We should be absolutely clear that this government will not
tolerate intolerance … intimidating migrants, telling them they need to go
home,” Cameron’s spokeswoman told journalists.
The Polish Embassy in London earlier said it was “shocked and
deeply concerned” by incidents of abuse directed at Poles and other eastern
Europeans living in England.
They include the posting of laminated cards reading “Leave the
EU – no more Polish vermin” to members of the Polish community in Huntingdon, near
the eastern city of Cambridge, on Saturday.
There were also reports of racist graffiti scrawled on a Polish
community centre in Hammersmith, west London. The Metropolitan Police Service
said it was investigating the claim.
“We would like to thank people for all the messages of support
and solidarity with the Polish community expressed by the British public,” the
embassy said.
London mayor Sadiq Khan on Monday placed the city’s police force
on alert following the incidents.
Khan said he took “seriously my responsibility to defend
London’s fantastic mix of diversity and tolerance.
“I’ve asked our police to be extra vigilant for any rise in
cases of hate crime, and I’m calling on all Londoners to pull together and
rally behind this great city.”
Mark Hamilton, the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council,
said: “We are seeing an increase in reports of hate crime incidents to True
Vision, the police online hate crime reporting site.
“This is similar to the trends following other major national or
international events. In previous instances, crime levels returned to normal
relatively quickly but we are monitoring the situation closely.”
Other incidents were reported on social media. Many used the
#postrefracism tag and account to call out examples of intolerance, both to EU
citizens living in England and non-white Britons.
One Twitter user, Ben Zen, wrote that two Britons waved an
English flag towards him and, having heard him speak in Romanian, said: “We
voted you out. Go home you f*****g immigrants.”
Another, Carlos from London, posted images of a Polish father
and son who had been severely beaten, reporting that the family members had said
Englishmen were behind the attack.
On Facebook, Ai Sha shared a video showing members of the
far-right English Defence League gathering outside a mosque in Birmingham
waving a flag that read: “Rapefugees Not Welcome”, as they shouted “f*****g
p**dos” and “Allah, Allah, who the f*** is Allah?”. Police later made two
arrests.
John O’Connell, from anti-racism group Far Right Watch, said
they had recorded more than 90 incidents in the past three days, ranging from
“verbal abuse up to physical violence”.
Rights groups called on people to report incidents as they
promised action.
“Now we are witnessing the shocking extent of this with reports
around the country of hate speech and minorities being targeted,” said Shuja
Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. “I will be writing
to the Home Secretary to ask what measures are being taken to step up security
and policing in areas where such incidences have been reported.”
Human Rights Watch said authorities “should take strong action
to curb xenophobic attacks and abuse in the United Kingdom in the wake of the
referendum”, as it encouraged people to report xenophobic acts to the police.
“A failure by the authorities and political leaders to address –
and be seen to address – these initial attacks risks creating a permissive
climate for further attacks and exacerbating divisions within society,” the
group warned.
A few days before the referendum, the far-right, anti-immigrant
UKIP party was accused of racism after unveiling a poster showing a queue of
refugees with the slogan “Breaking point” and a plea to leave the EU.
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