On facts and myths about refugees

I have worked and volunteered for three decades in the UK, while proudly contributing to several good causes for the welfare of society. I made Scotland and the UK my home, although coming from Iran originally. Recently, I have been sad and worried for the future of both this country and my country of birth. 

I am worried for the UK, since after being one of the most welcoming countries for decades for many refugees, and creating a wonderful diverse culture, it is allowing itself to be polluted with the far-right poison.

Although an impressive article in Counterfire titled ‘Humiliation of the far right in Glasgow’ presented how anti-racist Glaswegians defeated the recent far-right riots, it was terrifying to read about the racist violence in Belfast. A BBC article described the events as: “homes and vehicles set on fire; water cannon deployed; more than a dozen police officers injured; and an atmosphere of fear has descended with reports of people being threatened for having a “different skin colour” and families being put out of their homes “because they’re black”.

The event seemingly starting the riots in Belfast was a Sudanese – British black man, violently stabbing a white man. It is of course a terrifying act of violence and the perpetrator should be punished for his crime, however I ask, why is it that when a coloured person commits a crime against a white person, it’s interpreted by the far-right as that whole race’s evilness and consequently they should all be thrown out of the UK, but when a white person commits a crime against an ethnic minority it is only treated as the crime of that individual perpetrator?

I like to echo Owen Jones, the famous British journalist who states that some relevant facts need to be looked into in this regard. 

According to a BBC article, In 2021 Jemma Mitchell, a white woman, killed and decapitated Mee Kuen Chong, a 67-year-old Asian woman. No Asian or other ethnicities rioted after that event.

Sky News reported that in 2025, a Neo-Nazi teenager tried to behead a Kurdish barber. Again, no ethnic minorities created unrest or asked for all whites to be punished.

After these and other similar crimes, everybody understood that the perpetrators were either criminals or had serious mental health issues and only they should be punished, not their whole race.

Furthermore, in the summer of 2024, there were riots and terrible acts like setting fire to the hotels where asylum-seekers stayed in 29 cities across the UK. The House of Commons Library described the riots: “Many of these were violent, with participants attacking mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Known far-right activists promoted and attended the riots”.  These riots were seemingly in response to the Southport stabbings.

Let’s have a better look at that stabbing, which was where a Black teenager stabbed and killed three young children and injured others in Southport.  While a horrible act, a Wikipedia article  provides some useful details about the stabber as: “Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, was born on 2006 in Cardiff, Wales, to Alphonse Rudakubana and Laetitia Muzayire, who are Evangelical Christian Tutsi originally from Rwanda, and who moved to the UK in 2002”. It continues, when Axel was 13, he called Childline asking: “What should I do if I want to kill somebody?” and in the following days, explained he wanted to kill someone who was bullying him at school.

Three main points come to mind here: Axel was not an asylum-seeker, he was born in the UK; Axel and his parents were not Muslims and he was bullied at school and had reported it to Childline. Considering all these facts, I am astonished to see summer 2024 rioters set fire to mosques and hotels homing asylum-seekers!

A good analysis of the recent Belfast unrest, and all these racist riots in my view, is presented in a BBC article: “On this occasion, social media played a central role from the very beginning… Less than 24 hours after the initial incident, hundreds of people came out for protests across Northern Ireland calling for a strict clampdown on immigration… Some of the posts circulating on social media gave times and places for protests and carried anti-immigration messaging… One of the more sinister posts was a long list of home addresses that had been collated and shared on social media”.

I should also add that according to statistics, the number of crimes in England and Wales and Scotland have clearly dropped during the past two decades, a period when apparently many refugees came to the UK and committed crimes.

It is obvious to me that social media, backed by the far-right and people like Elon Musk and some political group leaders, orchestrated and then, in a way, provided licence for those riots. 

So, my question now is: Do British people, who are rightly proud of their tolerant and fair treatment of all cultures, want to accept these atrocities and the damage to their country and reputation?

There is also the recent war on Iran, my birth country, saddening me, seeing children, women and innocent civilians being murdered. According to modern history, Iran has never initiated an attack on any country and has 3000 years of rich culture, but it is portrayed as the big bad wolf in the media. It has been bombed several times terribly in the past two years, apparently to free the people of Iran. The people of Iran do not want Israeli and American ‘democratic bombs’! Yes, there are issues in Iran with the economy, governance and rights, and the people of Iran need to be listened to properly by the authorities there, however, the people of Iran have said clearly that those issues are internal and need to be handled by Iranians within Iran, and in Iranian ways.

My last question is: What would it take for us to realise that diplomacy and mutual-respect for the sovereignty of other countries have always provided a positive impact (e.g. Obama’s Iran deal), while war has only brought more war. “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind”, as one of my heroes Gandhi said.

 

It should be noted that all of the points raised in this article, unless referenced to their original authors, are this author’s personal views and experience.