Anti-migrant protesters 'hijacking' women's safety to push 'racist' agenda, women's groups warn

“Protect our women and children;” “Save our girls;” “Stop assaults.”

The signs outside recent anti-asylum hotel protests often condemn gendered violence. But this deeply serious issue has been “hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda,” more than 100 women’s rights groups have warned.

In an open letter to Keir Starmer and home secretary Yvette Cooper, groups including Rape Crisis England and Wales, the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), and Refuge warned against “racist” attempts to link sexual violence with immigration.

“In the last weeks, we have seen how vital conversations about violence against women and girls (VAWG) are being hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda that fuels division, harms survivors and ultimately impedes the real work of tackling the root causes of society-wide violence, to the detriment of women and girls,” the letter reads.

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“We write as organisations on the frontlines of combatting VAWG to urge the government to address this dangerous narrative.”

In total, 200 organisations signed the statement, including 102 anti-VAWG and women’s rights groups, as well as 98 unions, universities and refugee support organisations.

It came the same day that Epping Forest District Council won its High Court bid to temporarily block asylum seekers from being housed at The Bell Hotel in Essex.

The town became the centre of anti-asylum unrest after an asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

“Every act of VAWG is a form of injustice,” the letter reads – but it is in reality most often perpetrated by someone close to the victim.

“VAWG is also perpetrated by people who move to the UK, but the racist idea that this is solely an imported problem flies in the face of women and girls’ daily experiences in the UK.”

Research shows that more than 90% of perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are known to their victims, and one woman every four days in the UK is murdered by a partner or ex-partner.

However, this does not stop politicians from scapegoating migrats. Earlier this month, Conservative Robert Jenrick claimed that foreign nationals are responsible for 40% of sexual crime in London.

The shadow justice secretary sourced this claim from the Centre for Migration Control (CMC), a think tank run by a Reform UK activist whose stated aim is “controlling and reducing migration to Britain”. That claim has been thoroughly debunked.

“[Misinformation] not only undermines genuine concerns about women’s safety but also reinforces the damaging myth that the greatest risk of gender-based violence comes from strangers,” the letter continues.

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said the far right has “long exploited the cause of ending violence against women and girls to promote a racist, white supremacist agenda”, adding that such narratives “ignore the reality that most violence against women and girls is perpetrated by someone known to them”.

Tragically, domestic abuse and its outcomes remain deeply pervasive in the UK. Almost one in three women will experience domestic abuse, and sexual offences are at the highest level recorded.

Last month it emerged that more than 40% of 899 people arrested over last summer’s riots had previously been reported to police for domestic abuse.

Andrea Vukovic, of Women for Refugee Women, added that the anti-migrant agenda “does not protect women – it frightens them”, with some asylum-seeking women now too scared to leave their homes.

“Unfounded claims that blame particular groups for sexual violence fuel division, while reinforcing the dangerous myth that gender-based violence comes from strangers,” she added.

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