Far-right riots in the UK: the culmination of years of rhetoric and policies

Following the tragic murder of three children by a UK national on July 29, and fuelled by false rumours that the assailant was a Muslim migrant, far-right rioters broke into hotels housing asylum seekers, targeted immigration lawyers, and terrorised Muslims and other minoritised communities. These riots are the culmination of over a decade of dehumanising rhetoric and government policies such as the hostile environment policy, which was a set of measures that aimed to identify and reduce the number of immigrants living in the UK with no right to remain. Among other reforms, the hostile environment included restrictions to free health care leading to the denial of care and delayed care. According to the UN Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, the effects of the hostile environment go beyond irregular migrants, with a broader impact on minority ethnic and racially minoritised individuals in the UK. Experiencing racism and xenophobia at different levels, from structural to individual, is a profound determinant of health that will probably have lasting health impacts on affected communities.

While the UK Government tries to address the unrest on the UK's streets, it must also take a deep introspective look into the policies, rhetoric, and political environment that have led us to this situation. We need considerable reparative work to fix deeper issues of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia in our structures of power, institutions, and communities.

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