Britain’s policies on austerity, immigration and tackling terrorism are racist, a United Nations watchdog has found. The Telegraph reports that UN Envoy and Law Professor Tendayi Achiume, a Special Rapporteur for the UN on racism, called for the anti-terrorism prevent strategy to be shut down and anti-immigration laws to be repealed.
Publishing her preliminary findings, Pro Achiume said that “austerity measures have been disproportionately detrimental to racial and ethnic minority communities”. She also added her suspicion that the vote to leave the EU has made the country more racist. Achiume also suggested that Brits were in a state of “national panic” about terrorism and claimed anti-terror programmes had stirred up Islamophobia.
My mission across the country, including stops in London and Belfast, will focus on explicit incidents of racism and related intolerance, as well as attention to structural forms of discrimination and exclusion that may have been exacerbated by Brexit.
“Xenophobic discrimination and intolerance aimed at refugees, migrants and even British racial, religious and ethnic minorities will also be an important focus.”
Her preliminary findings drew criticism and anger. Pro-Brexit MPs insisted her trip was a “stitch-up” motivated by the “extreme left”. They didn’t mince much their words and blasted the findings as “garbage” and said it was a “rehash of all the tripe” put out by the Remain campaign during the Brexit vote.
Back in November 2017, two international studies also suggested that fear of immigrants and foreigners is associated with support for Brexit. These findings were true regardless of voter age, gender or education.
Sources: The Sun, The Telegraph, The Independent
