Know Your Enemy

"When ministers – from the prime minister down – dehumanise refugees as 'swarms' and suggest that such people constitute a threat to our way of life, these are not merely passing aberrations. When victims of abuse are denied access to support and assistance in order to challenge that abuse, it's not a one-off case. In recent years the government has cut legal aid, withdrawn access to judicial review and ramped up the rhetoric against those seeking asylum in the UK. Faced with such a hostile environment, is it any wonder that racist thugs feel able to act with impunity while the victims continue to suffer in silence?"

Steve Symonds, director of Amnesty UK's refugee and migrant rights programme, underlines how attacks on refugees are being fuelled by the "aggressive hostility" of the Tories (both in policy and rhetoric), of which they're perversely proud.