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‘Almost half of Britons oppose receiving refugees’

Monday, 15 June 2015 11:29 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 15 June 2015 11:31 AM ]

A new study suggests almost half of Britons do not welcome refugees into the United Kingdom and want them gone.

The poll commissioned by the charity group, Islamic Relief and conducted by YouGov also said there has been a “dramatic hardening of views” against people displaced by war.

Some 42% of more than 6,000 Britons in the poll believe the UK should not take in foreign nationals fleeing conflict or persecution in their own countries, Daily Mirror reported.

This is while only in 2014 just 31% of people believed Britain should not welcome refugees in a similar survey of 5,000 people.

Meanwhile, 47% said the UK should not provide refuge to people fleeing Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

Now Arzu Merali, Human Rights Activist and co-founder of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in London says, “Unfortunately, we have had a steady rise in xenophobic attitude in the United Kingdom over the last 20, 30, 40 years.”

She added that what the UK has today is “a very heightened rhetoric that demonizes all sorts of segments of society as a way for those who have power in this country, which are fewer and fewer people to really distract from the real problems that we have.”

The latest poll comes after Britain helped rescue more than 1,000 people off the coast of Libya this month, where hundreds are feared to have drowned so far this year trying to make the crossing to Europe.

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