Concerned, upset, emotional, angry – what one immigration solicitor told the Gazette today amid reports that rioters could target law firms and advice agencies. Another solicitor said: ‘This is scarier than anything that has happened before.’

The Gazette reached out to the two solicitors the day after it emerged that names and addresses of law firms and advice agencies have been shared on a list of targets for protest and violence. For their safety, we are not disclosing their identities.

One of the solicitors said he is taking precautions and working remotely. ‘But it’s difficult. We’re dealing with asylum seekers whose first language is not English. It is difficult to build a rapport over the phone. But we have to do something to protect ourselves.’

After seeing footage of rioters target hotels housing asylum seekers over the weekend, the solicitor said he called his clients staying in similar hotels to check they were OK.

‘The first thing I told them was to call me anytime if there was anything I can do. I also told them to call the police if anything happened. It’s difficult because they have nowhere else to go. All I can do is try to put them at ease.’

The solicitor has seen the list of firms and advice agencies that could be targeted. ‘They should be offered police protection this week. For other immigration practitioners, the most sensible thing that we can do is stay away from the office as much as we can to avoid any risk to ourselves.’

The other solicitor told the Gazette that the riots feel like the real-life consequences of ‘unchecked rhetoric’ from the government, media and online, which has vilified the work that immigration lawyers do and stirred up hatred against the people they represent. Even before the riots, the solicitor scaled back his social media presence and not publicised the work he does.

The solicitor's bosses have told staff they can work from home and to keep away from windows when they are in the office.

The solicitor is continuing to go to the office and said: ‘This has come out to cause us fear and distress. I’m not going to respond in the way [the rioters] want me to respond [and] stop going to places where I work, stop representing the people I represent. Fundamentally, I know we’re on the right side of this.’

Zoe Bantleman, legal director of the Immigration Law Practitioners Association (ILPA), told the Gazette: ‘The recent far-right violence and riots may intend to divide us, to vilify migrants, people racialised as migrants, and those of us who represent them. We will not bow to these tactics of intimidation. We will respond with solidarity, and it is that which strengthens the legal community in the face of adversity.

‘We may need to adapt our ways of working and we have encouraged members to take precautions to safeguard their wellbeing, but we will not be discouraged from doing our jobs: providing equal access to justice and upholding the rule of law.’

Hazar El-Chamaa, chair of ILPA's trustees, said: 'Hostility towards immigration practitioners is sadly nothing new and has been fuelled, in recent years, by inflammatory rhetoric by certain politicians and parts of the media. However, the current escalation of far-right threats has taken things to a new level and is a matter of enormous concern, first and foremost for the lawyers themselves and their communities, but also for access to justice and the rule of law within the UK.

'Our members are understandably apprehensive, and we have issued specific security advice as well as additional wellbeing support. However, the current climate cannot be allowed to continue. The government must step up and change the harmful narrative on migration once and for all.'

 

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