Brexit vote sparks ‘open season for racists’ say workers at Sikh soup kitchen

MEMBERS of Scotland’s Sikh community say the Brexit result has created “open season” for racists.

The head of the National Police Chiefs Council said the referendum had led to a “spike” in reports of race-related hate crimes, with incidents in England and Wales jumping by 42 per cent to more than 3,000 in the week before and after the June 23 vote.

While anti-Polish stickers and “white zone” messages have been found around Glasgow since the result, Police Scotland says the rise in reports has not been experienced north of the Border.

However, the force acknowledged that many offences go unreported.

Speaking at the Central Gurdwara in Glasgow this week, members of Seva Scotland, a Sikh-run soup kitchen, said they had all experienced abuse since the vote and that they fear for the future.

Father Rajpal Singh said: “I was told ‘go home, we’ve voted you out’ at the Glasgow Fort. I felt like saying ‘where to, Cumbernauld?’.

“It’s open season. The Brexit result has legitimised racism and fascism.”

He went on: “Brexit scares a lot of Sikhs because of the loss of European human rights laws. By being part of a bigger European family, it helps us.”

There are around 10,000 Sikhs in Scotland, most of whom live within the Glasgow area.

Scotland’s minority ethnic population stood at around 211,000 people in 2011, with only eight per cent of residents recording their ethnicity as anything other than “white: Scottish” or “white: British” at the time of the last census.

A study published last September by Dr Nasar Meer of Strathclyde University found widespread experiences of discrimination in education, the workplace and on public transport.

More than 80 per cent of respondents believed they were targeted because of perceptions about their ethnicity, while 42 per cent believed it was related to religion.

However, only half of those from black African or Caribbean heritage had reported abuse, with the rate dropping to 29 per cent of Asians and 23 per cent of people with mixed backgrounds.

Pawan Singh from Glasgow said he had been abused twice in two weeks but had reported neither incident.

He said: “You hear ‘terrorist, Bin Laden, go home’. Since Brexit, it has happened more than usual. It happens to all of us and no one reports it because it is not worth it.”

He went on: “There is a recognised acceptance with Islamophobia that this is a thing, this is not acceptable, but we fall through the cracks. We’re a smaller community and we’re not as good at advocating as other religious groups.”

Rajpal says changing attitudes give “more reason” for the Seva Scotland soup kitchen to continue, saying: “Against the grain, we are going to be out there on the street feeding people despite the rising hatred.”