BASW UK urges Home Office to take caution after Knowsley attack

Inflammatory and negative language to describe asylum seekers may have contributed to the hostile environment that leads to attacks on migrant centres

A hotel in Knowsley housing asylum seekers was targeted by far-right activists on 10th February, with violent disorder breaking out including criminal damage to police equipment and dangerous items being thrown. This disturbance will have been traumatic for the asylum seekers accommodated at the hotel, many of whom would have fled violence and aggression.

It seems likely that Inflammatory and negative language to describe asylum seekers used by the Home Office has contributed to the hostile environment that leads to attacks on migrant centres such as the recent incident in Knowsley. Recent Home Secretaries have described asylum seekers as “being members of criminal gangs”, and blaming them for issues at migrant centres. This rhetoric inflames tensions and indirectly encourages people to take action themselves.

In November, there was an attack on an immigration centre at Dover Port. The Home Secretary was described as ‘shocked’ about the incident, but some of the language of the Home Office has not changed.

BASW UK has consistently urged the Home Office to be careful with potentially inflammatory language. During the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, we repeatedly argued that politicians and the Home Office should be cautious about the language it uses to talk about asylum seekers.

If the Home Office is serious about their duties to maintain the welfare and wellbeing of people in asylum-seeker accommodation, they must reflect on their own use of language.  

Along with being more cautious about how it talks about asylum seekers, the Home Office should also take urgent measures to address the number of people being kept in hotels and centres.

We know that there are significant backlogs at the Home Office, but no measures seem to have been introduced to tackle these. Applications for asylum need to be sped up so that people are not spending months in unsuitable accommodation which makes them easily identifiable by those seeking to commit violence.

BASW UK will continue to put pressure on the Home Office to neutralise their language when talking about asylum seekers, work constructively with all agencies, and address the backlogs of asylum claims so that people can be moved out of inappropriate accommodation and into communities where they can build their lives.