We protect migrants and their rights – now we're being targeted by the far-right

Over the last few days, we have seen vicious, racist attacks on the communities we serve. Hotels housing asylum seekers in Tamworth and Rotherham have been set on fire – undeniable attempts at mass murder. Police are investigating several racist attacks connected to the riots including a video of a mob in Hull attacking an Asian man in his car. In Belfast, a man in his 50s was taken to hospital on Monday after he was seriously assaulted. Shops, businesses and mosques have been targeted and Muslim graves have been desecrated. 

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And now, those of us who work in the migrant rights sector are finding themselves doxed on Telegram chats and our places of work being targeted. While well-meaning voices call for calm and say, ‘this is not who we are,’ it’s hard to believe that when those of us who work in this sector have been warning of this for years. 

These extremist, racist, Islamophobic, and to remove all doubt – fascist – riots haven’t come out of nowhere. They have been nurtured, fed and nourished with half-truths, propaganda and flat-out lies by politicians and mainstream media for years.

Up until now, we feared for our clients, such as those attacked in the asylum hotel in Knowsley earlier this year, or those caught in the firebomb attack at the Dover processing centre. We looked on in horror as anti-migrant scapegoating became the go-to guaranteed headline grabber and vote winner for those not only on the right, but those who claim to be moderates.

And now we are getting to experience the terror our clients face up close, with our organisation and others like us being warned that the far-right have decided to make us the focus of their energies.

While politicians and media talking heads make throwaway statements and swan in and out of power, it is our clients and those of us who advocate for them who are in the firing line. But make no mistake, this cancer of extremism will spread if it isn’t cut out, and no one is safe.

As the famous poem by Martin Niemoller goes: “And then they came for me, and there was no-one left, to speak out for me.”

This has been years in the making, the work of successive government’s hostile environment policies in action.

The hostile environment has turned the resources of the state against those who are most vulnerable, mobilising millions of taxpayer pounds to victimise those in need.

At the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants we’ve been relentlessly pushing back on divisive anti-migrant narratives for years because we knew it would lead to this. But it’s a lonely place. We can count on our hands the politicians and people who consistently use their voice positively for migration.

We can’t do this alone. We urgently need to mainstream positive narratives about migration and migrants, and this has to be a consistent theme to turn back the hatred that is now running rampage in our communities.

Words matter. And the normalisation of racism and Islamophobia in the media and politics has fuelled this racist extremism. Anti-migrant language is a double-edged sword that emboldens the far-right and harms us all. There is no legitimacy in it. There is no appeasing it.

Our former home secretary put a target on the backs of lawyers like the ones in our team, who are now in fear of their safety by singling out “lefty lawyers”.

Politicians like Suella Braverman and others who have spoken of “hordes” bear responsibility for the attacks on lawyers and our clients who are seeking sanctuary in this country.

As we brace ourselves for attacks on our offices this week, we urgently need this to be a turning point for all of us. The only way forward is to push back against anti-migrant language wherever we find it and instead have the courage to question the lies we are fed about immigration and about how ordinary people feel about it.

In the aftermath of this violence people have come out to clear the mess and support those attacked. Volunteers are rebuilding mosques and standing guard outside vulnerable people’s accommodation. The rail workers union has urged its members to protect those under attack. We need these actions to become a broader mainstream national movement to push back against the tide of fascism.

Today’s resistance and outrage is necessary, but we need to consistently confront anti-migrant narratives, not only when the racism it brews reaches boiling point.

None of this has ever been about three innocent lives lost, it has never been about patriotism, it has been fascism – pure and simple.

The choice is ours. It is a choice to set a library and Citizens Advice Bureau on fire, or a choice to defend our neighbours, rebuild mosques and advocate for those most in need.

While the far-right plan to attack organisations like ours, our message is clear: we will not move, we will not stop supporting migrant communities, and we will not stop striving for a country that welcomes those in need.

If those who planned to attack our offices stopped and thought, they would see that what we have in common will always be bigger than what divides us.

We’re living through a cost of living crisis that makes life harder for all of us. Our NHS is underfunded and mismanaged and our education system fails children of all colours.  Consecutive governments have failed working class people across the country and shifted the blame onto people who have had nothing to do with the poverty they caused.

To counter this wave of hate, we need strong leadership, unwavering solidarity and a new politics based on the value of our shared humanity. 

Community solidarity is the only way to beat hate and division and, on Wednesday (7 August) night, we saw thousands across the country resist the far right, from London to Liverpool. People, when not manipulated by politicians and the media, want to live in peace in their communities and last nights counter-protests are proof of this.

We must continue to stand firmly together, now more than ever. Check in with loved ones and neighbours, offer support and build collective care. If we are safe and able, we should organise, in our workplaces and communities, and strengthen the movement for justice, freedom and dignity for all.  

Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah is the director of communications at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

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