After Britain voted to exit The European Union, The United Nations has shed light on a series of incidents of verbal harassment towards the minorities and foreigners in the United Kingdom.
Incidents of Europeans yelling “go home” and trying to intimidate minorities, non-white Britons, has been rising since the referendum to exit the EU has been voted for on Friday.
A viral video on social media showed three British men in Manchester shouting racist terms towards an American passenger, calling him a “little f**king immigrant” and to “get off the f**king tram now. Get back to Africa.”
This is just one of many incidents that have been reported since the referendum has passed. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, stated: “I urge the UK authorities to act to stop these xenophobic attacks and to ensure that all those suspected of racist and anti-foreigner attacks are prosecuted.”
Advocators for the leave campaign argued that if Britain were to leave the EU, it would help block immigration.
The post-Brexit racism paints a much larger issue, many of the people that have voted for Britain’s exit voted with the hope that immigrants will no longer be allowed to enter their country, and that the minorities already in the country would be forced to leave.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the government “will not tolerate intolerance.”
Another incident was reported of racist graffiti and signs posted around a Polish community stating “Leave the EU. No more Polish Vermin.”
Al-Jazeera stated that Cameron had spoken to his Polish counterpart Beata Szydlo and expressed his concern to her, reassuring her that the Polish people in Britain would be protected.
The rising intolerance comes during a time of heightened fear of terrorist attacks around the region. The UN investigator on racism, Mutuma Ruteere, believes that Britain’s institutions will be able to address these problems before they become larger issues.
