Far-right targets hotels housing Afghan refugees

It has been reported that there has been an increase in far-right groups targeting hotels where Afghan refugees are being accommodated, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

Britain First is one of the most prominent organisations involved and, according to its own website, has made more than a dozen unsolicited visits in recent weeks to hotels housing Afghan refugees in areas including Telford, Stoke-on-Trent and Colchester.

The Hope Not Hate campaign group has stated that resettlement schemes for Afghans have became a focal point for many such groups, with the arrival of the refugees having led to the far right ‘reviving, and refining, similar attacks used during the Syria crisis’.

Britain First and For Britain, another far-right political party, claim to be concerned about the cost of the resettlement of Afghan refugees to UK taxpayers, with For Britain focusing on claiming that the new migration will increase unemployment among British workers, exaggerating the framing of refugees as potential terrorists or sexual predators.

Britain First has reportedly been barred from various social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Instead, it urges supporters to download the Telegram app where it broadcasts many of its anti-migrant hotel videos.

According to Hope Not Hate, some of these recent videos posted on Telegram have received 40,000 views.