Polish people living in Nottingham are in shock after suffering a series of racist hate crimes since the EU Referendum result.
Some city residents have told Notts TV News they and their children have been shouted at, threatened and ‘offered tickets home’ in a rise in abuse since Thursday’s poll.
Police are investigating and say they will take every reported incident seriously. They are asking people to contact them on 101 or 999 if a crime is in progress.
Around 1,000 people gathered in Old Market Square on Tuesday night for a rally calling for peace and unity in Nottingham after last Thursday’s referendum result.
The 52 per cent victory for the Leave vote was followed by a national increase in reports of racist hate crime directed at minorities.
There were 85 reports of hate crimes to True Vision, a police-funded reporting website, between Thursday and Sunday compared with 54 reports over the same period four weeks ago.
Piotr Domanski is the marketing co-ordinator for Signpost for Polish Success, a charity based in the Arboretum which helps Poles integrate in the UK.
He said he’d been shocked at abuse his 14-year-old daughter had received in school since the vote.
“She told me she has been verbally abused by four pupils and one of them threatened to slap her and provide her with a ‘ticket back to Poland’,” he said.
“She felt rejected, she felt like she lost her confidence.”
Around 1,000 braved a rainy Old Market square on Tuesday to protest against hate crime
Other members of the community say this is just one example of several incidents over the last five days.
“There have been other incidents,” said Beata Polanowska, manager at Signpost for Polish Success.
“People have been subjected to unpleasant Xenophobic comments for example ‘oh, are you still here?’ and ‘when are you going home?’.
“This has happened to adults and children alike. Comments have come from neighbours, people on the street, other children.
“I have a daughter who is half-Polish, half-British, and I want her to feel proud of it but right now I don’t know whether I can even make her feel confident.
“Whatever is happening now is making us feel like second-class citizens.”
Notts Police say they are working with minority ethnic groups in Notts to get them to report abuse as hate crimes.
Notts Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping said: “The police are in touch with both the Polish community and the Muslim community – other communities as well.
“I know that we’re not getting a full account – I get out and talk to people. But ultimately we need a body of evidence to challenge it. We need to work together.”
Sajid Mohammed, a member of Nottingham Community Safety Forum, said: “The far right have been empowered.
“The really nasty people now believe that they’re in the right and that people who do not look like them or believe what they believe should leave the country. It’s totally unacceptable.”
