Haringey Stand Up To Racism on Tories and migration crisis

He threw three petrol bombs attached to fireworks and was later found dead in his own car. Two of the bombs went off and a fourth was found in his car.

Such assaults are the inevitable result of the relentless anti-migrant propaganda from the state and large parts of the media.

If, as the Tories do, you - demonise refugees, denounce them as fakes and scroungers, and dream of despatching them to Rwanda then some people will take that as a cue to violence.

Far from backing off, the Tories are piling on the incitement. In Parliament the following Monday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the public needs to know which party is serious about “stopping the invasion” of migrants to Britain.

She said illegal migration was “out of control”. Her language is the sort of vile rhetoric that was, until recently, just the ranting of fascists.

Vivek Lehal says the Tories are inciting racism (Image: Vivek Lehal)

The reality is very different. In the year ending March 2022, Germany received the highest number of asylum applicants - 164,925 - in the European Union, followed by France at 112,860. Britain received 66,838, including both main applicants and dependants.

The crisis isn’t too many migrants, it’s a crisis of racism.

Braverman called the firebombing attack “distressing”. Yet her foul dream to deport refugees to Rwanda is typical of the driving forces behind such an attack.

The attack came as Rishi Sunak spoke with French president Emmanuel Macron about making the Channel “completely unviable” for people traffickers. But traffickers make a business out of dangerous crossings because there is no other way to reach Britain.

By law, refugees must be physically present in Britain to claim asylum. Yet there is no visa to travel for that reason.

We have to make sure that the Tory crisis and the politics of scapegoating are opposed. The rise of the far right in Italy and Sweden is a sober reminder of why we have to mobilise, all of us – black, white, Muslim – together, to oppose all divisions.

Vivek Lehal is secretary of Haringey Stand up to Racism.