Our Statement on the Recent Far Right Violence

We on the Green Party Asylum and Migration Policy Working Group have been sickened by the violence witnessed on our streets in the last few days.

This violence is fueled by racism and Islamophobia. These are not protesters. People with “legitimate concerns” do not burn down libraries, attack people because of the colour of their skin, or target community centres and mosques, or the police.

We stand in solidarity with the many thousands of people who have taken to the streets to support our communities, to help clean up and rebuild after the destruction, and who have bravely stood to protect asylum hotels and prevent further violence.

We stand in solidarity with people claiming asylum here, with people who are trying to make new lives here for whatever reason, and we take strength from our diverse communities.

The rise of the far right and fascism has been fueled by toxic and divisive rhetoric by the previous government, helped on by relentless campaigns by some newspapers, and set alight by agitators on social media.

We and countless others have repeatedly warned that the language used in the media and by some politicians dehumanises migrants, that the standard of debate around human rights  is a threat to the rule of law, and far right politicians and commentators have been given the oxygen of publicity they seek.

Migrants have been allowed to become the scapegoats for inequality in our society, for our broken housing system and for the austerity that is dismantling our public services.

This must change, we must do better in holding to account those who seek to simply destroy and divide us. We must not tolerate intolerance.