A number of well-known women, including Indian-origin British lawyer-activist Shami Chakrabarti and Indian sitar artiste Anoushka Shankar, have signed an open letter asking the people of the United Kingdom to stop associating immigrants and asylum-seekers with sexual crimes.
In an exclusive report on the letter, The Guardian said: “Signatories include the musicians Paloma Faith, Charlotte Church and Anoushka Shankar as well as Labour, Green and independent MPs including Kim Johnson, Ellie Chowns, Diane Abbott and Zarah Sultana.”
The news website reported: “The open letter, titled Women Against the Far Right, follows a surge in protests outside accommodation housing asylum seekers and far-right attempts to exploit a number of cases of alleged sexual crimes involving asylum seekers.”
It may be noted, as per a recent Connected to India report: “Indians have emerged as the nationality with the largest percentage increase in convictions for sexual offences in the UK amid a wider surge in foreigners being sentenced for such crimes over the past four years in the country, according to an analysis of British government data.”
Several places in the United Kingdom have been seeing furious public protests in recent months against immigrants and asylum-seekers, including those staying in government-funded hotels.
A BBC report headlined ‘Asylum seekers in hotels: Why it’s a big issue in the UK right now’ said that some of these asylum-seekers “have arrived in the UK without permission and the process of seeking asylum can take a long time”.
People in the neighbourhood of UK hotels accommodating asylum-seekers feel that the presence of these asylum-seekers “makes their communities less safe”, as per the report.
However, pushing back those protesting against foreigners in the United Kingdom, the open letter by the high-profile women said: “We reject the far right’s racist lies about ‘protecting’ women and girls. They are not defenders of women — they exploit violence against women to fuel hate and division.”
The Guardian report cited instances where British politicians such as Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, and Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, had linked immigrants and asylum-seekers with increased risks of sexual offences against girls and women.
The open letter countered: “Violence against women and girls is a serious and urgent issue. But it will never be solved by the likes of Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick targeting refugees, Muslims and migrants.”
Insisting that there was “no evidence that people seeking refuge are more likely to commit acts of sexual violence”, the letter said that many asylum-seekers were “themselves survivors of violence, war, and persecution”.
