Responding to recent incidents of violence and harassment outside asylum accommodation locations, a Refugee Action spokesperson said:

“Our thoughts are with the people seeking safety, including children, who have been targeted with racist harassment, threats and violence outside the buildings in which they have been forced to live. 

“With the scars of last summer’s riots still fresh, this is the result of a complete failure by the government to take action to unite our communities, stop the racist rhetoric that fuels violence, and protect people seeking safety. 

“A protest that involves targeting people seeking asylum where they live can never be “peaceful”. These are hostile and dangerous events that are incited or co-opted by cynical far-right leaders, who exploit real cases of sexual harassment and abuse to spread racist hatred against people of colour seeking safety. 

“Families we support have also been targeted by the far right, who film, harass, attack and intimidate, emboldened by harmful political rhetoric and actions.  

“It’s time the government changed the narrative. It must stop using criminalising, scapegoating and dehumanising language, defend the rights of people to seek safety and work to unite our communities. Then it must take action to ditch the hostile policies that divide and segregate people in the first place, such as moving people out of hotels and lifting the ban on work.”