Spot checks creating rising hostility among minorities
Members of Southall Black Sisters took to the streets on Aug 2 to protest against the UK Border Agency's immigration raid on a shopping center in Southall, a large suburban district of west London.
Southall Black Sisters, a not-for-profit organization set up in 1979, works with black and ethnic minority women.
The organization said the spot checks by border enforcement officers at train stations in areas such as Southall, Slough, Brent and East London are just some examples of divisive and dangerous tactics.
Many people in black and minority communities have complained that they find the "go home" vans and anti-immigration campaigns profoundly unsettling.
Many black and minority people have been stopped while others are afraid to go out, it said, adding that the campaigns have also contributed to rising hostility and tensions between different groups of people.
(China Daily 10/24/2013 page12)