After taking eight refugees
to intensive care following beatings in Glasgow
last month, Sophia Marriage, a spokesperson
for the Scottish Refugee Council, told a
colleague that she was just waiting for the
first one to get killed.
Her
eerie prediction came true. When a Kurdish refugee
from Turkey was killed in a housing project in Sighthill
last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees office released a statement that it was "deeply
concerned" about recent violence towards refugees
in the United Kingdom. Following the killing on Sunday,
an Iranian refugee was stabbed by a Scottish resident
at a housing project in Sighthill on Tuesday, and another
refugee was stabbed in the throat in Hull, England.
"Three such attacks in the space of three
days is a very alarming development," the
statement said. "But in UNHCR's view it
was sadly predictable given the climate of vilification
of asylum-seekers that has taken hold in the
UK in recent years," the statement said.
Tensions began rising in the area since the
government introduced the dispersal program,
which was meant to place refugees throughout
the UK, mostly in low-income areas, such as Sighthill
in Scotland. Physical attacks against refugees
began around Christmas last year, and beatings
became common in April and May. Police responded
by adding interpreters and officers to the area,
but conditions continued to worsen. Since January,
over 70 refugees have been assaulted, according
to the Scottish Refugee Council.
"A small minority of people with racist
intentions have perpetrated racist crimes," said
Marriage, who described the attackers as "people
who are frustrated with the system and the society
in which they are living and have found scapegoats."
Yesterday, 14 refugees who fled to London from
Glasgow were ordered back to Sighthill, although
they claimed to be subject to verbal and physical
harrassment.
In a recent editorial,
Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees wrote, "Asylum-seekers
make a perfect target for people who want to
invoke the age-old prejudice against foreigners." Lubbers
went on to say that vitriol from the government
and media had seeped into public consciousness,
even to the point of making the word "refugee"an
insult among Britain's children.
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