Social media amplification has normalized a narrative that men crossing the Channel in flimsy boats are dangerous and likely to harm women. Political leaders have linked small-boat arrivals to threats against women's safety, heightening public alarm. Toxic rhetoric has translated into verbal abuse, threats, and physical attacks against asylum seekers, including an assault that left an older man with a broken arm and fearful to leave his accommodation. Charities and statutory services face growing risks, including targeted abuse, firebombing of a refugee allotment patch, and staff instructed to hide lanyards and consider personal and home security measures.
So it is fast becoming accepted in the national conversation that all men risking life and limb to cross the Channel in flimsy vessels are dangerous people who are likely to abuse women and girls. The leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, went so far as to say that, because of rising numbers coming in small boats, women had stopped jogging in the park because there are men lurking in bushes.
On the street they have faced verbal abuse and hostility. Shouts of Go home, scumbag and more hate-filled language are not uncommon. I met an African man in his 60s living in the north-east recently who in May, not long after the prime minister told the country we risk becoming an island of strangers, was set upon by a group of men and suffered a broken arm. He was so terrified he didn't want to leave his accommodation for weeks on end.
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