UK charities say toxic immigration rhetoric leading to threats against staff

Graffiti near the Britannia International hotel in Canary Wharf, London, where asylum seekers are planned to be housed. Charities say they are now also being targeted. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Charities have warned of growing racial abuse, intimidation and threats of violence towards their staff and beneficiaries amid increasingly toxic rhetoric around immigration and race by politicians and extremist activists.

Voluntary organisations say they are being forced to introduce extensive security measures to protect staff and property – a trend described by one charity head as in danger of becoming the “new normal” – after being targeted.