Intruders broke into our flat and told us: 'Immigrants go home now' during post-Brexit hate crime surge

“Shaking”: Erzsebet Trautman, who moved to London from Hungary three years ago, says she was racially abused by a man and woman in her apartment
BBC
Kiran Randhawa5 September 2016
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Hate crime is on the increase in the capital following the Brexit vote, an investigation has found.

The East European Centre in Hammersmith says it has been inundated with complaints from residents who have been subjected to abuse after the country voted to leave the EU in June.

In the days following the referendum, the number of race hate crimes reported in London surged by more than half, the Metropolitan Police revealed in July. The force is now dealing with up to 78 incidents of this kind every single day.

One woman said she and her family have left the capital after they were attacked in their home. Erzsebet Trautman, 49, moved from Hungary to London three years ago. But a month ago, she left her flat in Camden and returned to Budapest fearing for her safety.

“It was really out of the blue, and it was shocking, we had rented an apartment, it was in a nice new building and we noticed there was someone there during the night. They broke the lock, they came in, charged their phones, and they urinated in the hallway. We asked them really nicely if they could leave and they really turned nasty. They said, ‘You Romanians, you immigrants, what are you doing here?’”

Ms Trautman, who was working as a relocation consultant for some of London’s top corporate managers, said the intruders finally left, but returned the next day.

“We are talking about two young people, a girl and a boy, they were in their early twenties,” she told BBC London’s Inside Out programme. “We asked them to leave, then once again, the abuse started: ‘You immigrants, you should go home now’.

“The guy actually hit me, he hit my arm, he actually bruised my arm. I was shaking because I really thought, ‘I am a normal citizen, this would not have happened to me’ and there it was, happening to me. Suddenly, you kind of feel you’re not wanted, rejected, you feel like unappreciated, that your contribution means nothing.”

Another woman, who only gave her name as Nancy, had been living on a south London estate for years with her husband and children after moving to the UK from Spain. But since June 24, the day after the Brexit vote, she has been living in fear after being cornered by three men who racially abused her.

“They started to be really aggressive,” she said. “I can’t even describe it, it’s something that you feel in your heart.”

Barbara Drozdowicz, director of the Eastern European Advice Centre, said: “Since the referendum there has been a high level, and continues to be fairly high level, of racial incidents and quite frankly I think it might be growing.”

She said recent cases include that of four men who were severely beaten, with two of them taken to intensive care. Commander Mak Chishty, the Met’s leader on tackling hate crime, said: “We understand that our Eastern European communities are feeling more targeted and more fearful and that is why we put more focus in those areas.

“We will not give in to any extremism, any type of hatred, we are here, we are standing together.”

  • The full report will be shown on BBC’s Inside Out at 7.30pm tonight.

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