Blog post

Publication details

Racist Hate Crimes Against Those Seeking Asylum
in: Border Criminologies

Year: 2017
Link to the blog post: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2017/05/racist-hate

Author(s) details

Monish Bhatia

Publication description

Keywords:
hate crime, Refugee, racism
Abstract:
"On 31st March 2017, a 17-year-old unaccompanied Kurdish asylum seeker was brutally attacked in Croydon, London by a group of approximately thirty men and women and left unconscious, with a fractured skull and blood clot in brain. The attack was strongly condemned by leaders across the mainstream political parties and refugee organisations, such as the Refugee Council. Several media outlets covered the story (here, here and here), and some claimed that hate crimes were a direct consequence of growing anti-immigration backlash triggered by the Brexit vote. The emerging critical reports on Brexit have also confirmed this link, highlighting the legitimisation of racism and rise in hate crimes. However, attacks on asylum seekers are not new. While extreme cases like this attract media attention, other hate incidents go largely unreported, unnoticed and unrecorded. British criminologists have not addressed this particular issue in sufficient depth, nor explored the strategies that can be introduced to tackle crimes and prevent those seeking asylum from becoming victimised. In this post, I will discuss some of the reasons as to why and how asylum seekers become victims of hate crimes and outline the problems in putting a stop to them and protecting the victims."