A refugee charity subjected to vicious social media attacks over a migrant welcome project in schools has been cleared of wrongdoing after watchdogs found allegations it encouraged pupils to send Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers were misleading and false.
City of Sanctuary UK came under fire last year after rumours spread online that under its schools programme, children were being “forced” to write heart-shaped welcome cards to adult migrants, including cards addressed to “my fiance”.
The Tory MP Gavin Williamson made a formal complaint against City of Sanctuary last August in the wake of the online attacks, claiming the charity had acted inappropriately and breached the law by acting in a “highly politicised” manner.
However, in a finding published on Tuesday, the regulator rejected Williamson’s complaint and said the charity had been the victim of a baseless misinformation campaign that resulted in its staff and trustees receiving threats.
Helen Earner, the director of regulatory services at the Charity Commission, said: “In this case, concerns about the charity’s work were fuelled by online misinformation, something charities are increasingly subject to and a concern for us as regulator.
“After examining the available evidence, we found the claims to be misleading and that the schools of sanctuary programme is within the charity’s purposes and complies with our guidance on campaigning and political activity.”
Williamson’s claims, which were reported in the Telegraph, were the latest in a series of “culture war” complaints in which backbench Tory MPs have alleged charities have broken laws on party political campaigning and pursued “woke” ideological agendas.
Previous targets have included the National Trust, Barnardo’s, and the Runnymede Trust. In each case the commission took on a compliance review to investigate the complaints, prompting widespread media coverage, before exonerating the charities.
City for Sanctuary makes educational materials available to schools to help them welcome refugee and asylum seeker children, promote values of compassion and tolerance, and encourage fellow pupils’ understanding of migrant experiences.
One activity involved children in making anonymised cards to show support and solidarity. City of Sanctuary said these bore expressions such as “welcome to our town” or “we hope you feel safe here”.
The activities were targeted online with social media posters alleging the cards included Valentine’s messages, playing on a rightwing trope that asserts male asylum seekersare perpetrators of sexual harassment and assaults against minors.
The commission concluded that while “heart-shaped general messages of welcome to refugees were displayed in schools”, it was satisfied that “at no point did children write cards to individual adult asylum seekers or refugees”.
A spokesperson for City of Sanctuary UK said: “The misinformation campaign we were subject to had a real impact on our team and the schools we work with, and we are grateful that the commission recognised this as part of its review. We know we are not alone – a number of other organisations working in this field have faced similar experiences.”
