How a Mail on Sunday Story About a Non-Existent ‘Migrant Crime Wave’ Led to an Anti-Migrant Protest
‘My concern is the safety of bringing fascism to my neighborhood.’
Earlier this month, the Mail on Sunday claimed to reveal “the shocking scale of serious crime committed by migrants living in hotels in communities across Britain”.
The newspaper’s investigation claimed that the scale of a “migrant crime wave” had “until now been unknown”. It showed that at least 312 asylum seekers have been charged with an “astonishing” 708 alleged criminal offences in just three years.
The investigation was endorsed by shadow home secretary Chris Philp. Scratch its surface and all it reveals is the prejudice of the Mail, campaigners say.
They point out that the Mail’s figures include innocent people who’ve been acquitted, as well as those yet to be found guilty of any crime. They add that the 312 who’ve been charged represent a fraction of the tens of thousands of people who have passed through asylum accommodation in the three years reported on by the Mail.
“Describing this as a ‘migrant crime wave’ is not only completely dishonest but incredibly dangerous, at a time when families forced to live in asylum hotels are being threatened on their doorstep by violent crowds,” Nathan Phillips, head of campaigns at migrant charity Asylum Matters, told Novara Media.
By this point, it was too late. The Mail’s scaremongering appears to have had a direct role in sparking at least one anti-migrant protest, due to take place on Saturday. The protest has been endorsed by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson, currently in Tenerife while police investigate his alleged assault of a man at St Pancras station.
Alongside its piece on the migrant “crime wave”, the Mail published an accompanying report focusing on the number of crimes linked to one hotel that also houses asylum seekers: the Barbican Thistle in Islington, north London. The day after the article was published, a Facebook group sprang up organising a protest at the accommodation, carrying the Mail’s headline as its header image.
The Mail’s report on the Barbican Thistle said that 41 residents of the hotel had been charged with 90 crimes over the past three years. Once again, the sensationalist framing only told part of the story. A coalition of local residents, community groups and anti-racist campaigners who are opposing Saturday’s demonstration called the Mail’s claims “inflammatory, misleading, and politically motivated.”
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Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2025/08/01/how-a-mail-on-sunday-story-about-a-non-existent-migrant-crime-wave-led-to-an-anti-migrant-protest
