UK: Government must address 'root cause of racism that plagues our society'

In response to recent racist attacks and other violent disorder across the UK, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said: 

“The widespread violence and hate crimes we’ve witnessed over the last few days are utterly unacceptable.

“It’s disgusting to see hotels housing people seeking sanctuary set on fire, mosques and businesses attacked, and people targeted because of the colour of their skin, their faith or their country of origin. 

“The racist violence we are now seeing on our streets has been preceded by an intense period of scapegoating refugees and migrants by politicians and others – in dangerous rhetoric and policy. I hope those who spread that rhetoric look on the consequences of their words and learn.

“Events of the last few days have been reported as 'anti-immigration protests' or ‘pro-British demonstrations’ and they should not be labelled as such. What we are seeing are clearly violent racist attacks targeting specific communities. 

“The Government’s response must be a serious one which ensures that policing is directed to protecting at-risk communities but also actively avoids dangerous and discriminatory ‘quick fix’ solutions like the further deployment of facial-recognition technology or 24-hour courts if that creates the potential to challenge judgements and so end up in fact damaging confidence in the judicial process.

“Above all, the Government must address the root causes of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia that plagues our society – and this includes actively calling out and addressing the dangerous rhetoric of politicians and commentators on social media and elsewhere.”