Lara Hawkins
@l4rash
Media Manager @FreefromTorture
Views all my own.
ID: 1515414665723101199
16-04-2022 19:39:57
518 Tweet
199 Followers
630 Following
🗣️“Images of people attacking and setting fires to hotels housing refugees - men, women and children who’ve fled unimaginable violence like torture - are a stark and chilling reminder that hateful rhetoric inspires hateful acts." Natasha Tsangarides 👇 theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2…
My latest for the The Guardian about this horrifying week of far-right riots and violence. Based n the work of the HOPE not hate research team. Some are calling these far-right riots an outpouring of legitimate anger. Ignore them. They are not theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
With 80 anti-racist and migrant rights organisations, we've written to Keir Starmer asking for Parliament to be recalled to address the scale of this crisis. The new govt must change the dial, and foster zero tolerance for far-right, racist and anti-migrant narratives.
Freedom from Torture🧡 frontline workers are working round the clock. Our clients are saying how terrified they feel - some scared to take their kids to the playground, others afraid to go to the supermarket & buy food, & some even too intimidated to attend our life saving therapy.
The political and media class is complicit in this racist, Islamophobic violence. They stoke division because they don’t want us to remember this truth: the enemy of the working class travels by private jet, not migrant dinghy. Me for the The Guardian: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
'Far right groups are not looking to address inequalities but to target those whom they will never accept as fellow Britons.' Excellent piece as ever by the incomparable David Olusoga 👇🏻
🗣️“We’ve been warning for so long about the dangers of the politics of hate and the scapegoating of refugees. Demonising and inflammatory language puts people seeking sanctuary at very real risk, and it needs to stop once and for all." Kolbassia Haoussou MBE 👇
These new announcements are just more of the same. At Freedom from Torture🧡 we know only too well the devastating harms blunt enforcement polices & detention have on survivors. It's time for the UK Gov to be the voice of compassion and stand up for those fleeing war and torture.
This is shocking, but not surprising. The previous Gov had little to no regard for the safety of those seeking sanctuary. Since day one, the Rwanda plan was only ever performative cruel politics. And all it's done is cause untold harm to refugees. Kolbassia Haoussou MBE 👇
This is devastating. Freedom from Torture🧡 we know that no one gets into an overcrowded & unseaworthy dingy to cross a busy shipping lane without a desperate need to find safety. In the absence of safe routes people will be forced to continue to risk their lives. Nadine Tunasi 👇
Nobody gets in a boat unless they feel that they have no other option. When the gov criminalises those fleeing persecution and shuts down their routes to safety, it only ever forces people into even more dangerous situations. Natasha Tsangarides 👇 bigissue.com/news/social-ju…
The true cost of using this kind of mass accommodation cannot be counted in £££ but in the harm it inflicts on some of the most vulnerable in our society. For the survivors Freedom from Torture🧡 support, this can be profoundly retraumatising, worsening despair, anxiety & depression.
🗣️ "I came to the UK seeking safety & spent 7 long years living in limbo waiting for my asylum case to be decided. I know only too well the huge cost this has on people’s health. You can’t access vital services; you can’t recover & you can’t move on with your life.” Nadine Tunasi 👇