A Brighton-based organisation has promised to deliver handwritten messages welcoming refugees and asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK in the wake of far-right violence and anti-immigrant unrest.
Conversation Over Borders has invited the public to submit messages of “solidarity” online, which they plan to write by hand and deliver to people in accommodation hotels across the country.
More than 1,000 messages of welcome were sent in within the project’s first 24 hours on Tuesday. Since then a further 1,200 have been submitted.
Organisation founder Colette Batten-Turner said her hope for the campaign was to “drown out the hate with love”.
“Although the voices of hatred are incredibly loud, they’re a tiny minority,” said Batten-Turner. “The vast majority of the public don’t stand behind those racist views but want to spread a message of solidarity and compassion.”
The UK has experienced the worst unrest in more than a decade over the last week, fuelled by misinformation online and anti-immigrant sentiment. Batten-Turner said the violence has triggered traumatic memories for some asylum seekers and refugees.
“People that are seeking sanctuary in a country where they thought they would feel safer are being faced with really explicit messages of hate. For them it’s quite distressing and quite terrifying,” she said.
Though the messages are due to be delivered next week, Batten-Turner said she has already passed on a few to those feeling distressed.
“The individuals who have received the letters have expressed how this has made them feel much more safe and welcome,” she said.
Batten-Turner said project participants have included a group of PhD students from the University of Manchester, a local festival and a primary school teacher who has planned to run a workshop with her students in September.
“We’ll continue collecting messages for as long as people want to send them,” she added.
On 4 August, hundreds of rioters gathered near a Holiday Inn Express hotel used to house asylum seekers near the northern town of Rotherham. The far-right demonstrators threw bricks at police, broke several hotel windows, and set bins on fire.
Communities have responded with a series of rallies against the riots. On Wednesday 7 August, thousands of anti-racism protesters gathered across England, forming human shields to protect asylum centres and holding placards saying “refugees welcome” and “reject racism”. In Brighton, three far-right demonstrators were booed while led away from hundreds of counter-protesters.
Batten Turner said she would like to see more protection for refugees and asylum seekers who she says are the “most vulnerable” in our society.
“We want to see an immediate action plan implemented by the home office to protect the people who are currently being housed in these initial accommodation sites. We are calling for people to be housed in communities, rather than hotels, in safe and secure housing,” Batten-Turner said.
