ANTI-RACISM campaigners said they will oppose any attempts by anti-refugee protesters to sow division at a demonstration against asylum seekers in Falkirk this weekend.
The anti-refugee group, Save Our Future & Our Kids Futures, have planned to hold a protest outside a hotel which houses asylum seekers in the Forth Valley town on Saturday.
Concerns have been raised by anti-racism campaigners about the protest, which has drawn support from members of Britain First and Great British National Protest.
Campaign group Stand Up To Racism Scotland confirmed they have organised a peaceful counter-protest to “stand in solidarity” with refugees and to show that they are welcome.
A spokesperson for the group said: “We reject the scapegoating and myths that say that refugees pose a threat to communities and we reject the attempts by this group to demonise refugees in an attempt to further their own racist or far-right agenda.”
They added: “There is no place for racism, hatred and division in Falkirk.”
Speeches from members of the local community, trade unionists, local campaigns, faith groups and others are all planned at the counter-protest.
The anti-refugee demonstration comes as a surge of protests have taken place across the UK in the wake of misinformation spread by senior politicians, including the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and Conservative Robert Jenrick.
On Monday, Reform UK claimed migrants from Muslim countries posed a threat to women’s safety in Britain, with the party’s only female MP, Sarah Pochin, claiming asylum seekers hold “medieval views”.
Jenrick also prompted anger over the weekend after he claimed mass migration was putting women and children at risk.
Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman has criticised other UK parties for contributing to growing hostility towards refugees.
She said instead of challenging the ideas of the far right, far too many politicians have tried to defeat them by imitating them, no matter how many times this tactic has failed.
Chapman said: “Time and again, we’ve seen centrist politicians usher in more brutal immigration systems, water down environmental policies, and stigmatise minorities, but the result has only given legitimacy to the toxic rhetoric of the far right. It has helped to fuel these awful protests and the bigotry that they are built on.
“People across Scotland need real change to improve their lives in the face of a broken economic system that entrenches inequality. We need real investment in public services, and action to lower daily costs like energy, rent, and bus and train fares.
“The Scottish Greens will always stand firm in solidarity with communities being targeted, and against racism and prejudice. Solidarity with all those standing up to the far right this weekend.”
The campaign coalition Together with Refugees added that the people targeted have already suffered unimaginably, having fled for their lives from countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Sudan and Syria.
A spokesperson said: “Now, due to unacceptable delays and a broken system, they are housed in hotels, a collective target of hostility, banned from working, with limited control over their lives or futures. Believing they will at last be safe and protected, they are then faced with further persecution and fear.”
Chief Inspector Alex Hatrick, Falkirk’s policing area commander, said: “We are aware of a planned protest and counter protest in Falkirk on Saturday, August 16.
“A proportionate policing plan is in place to ensure public safety and minimise disruption.”
