The far-right is trying to bully civil society into silence

More than 150 organisations, lawyers and KCs say they are being pressured into silence. Two refugee NGOs have shut their offices after credible threats. Staff have been doxxed. Rape and death threats are landing in inboxes. This is an organised attempt to drive people out of public life for helping asylum seekers exercise their rights.

The signatories include Liberty, Greenpeace, Care4Calais, Bail for Immigration Detainees, Choose Love, the Runnymede Trust and Freedom from Torture. Their joint statement is simple. Media narratives are fanning the flames. Headlines and social posts are being written to inflame rather than inform. The result is a chilling effect. People who defend due process and basic dignity are being told to shut up or face violence.

What is happening

• Refugee support groups assisting people who received Home Office notices under Labour’s “one in, one out” policy report credible threats and have closed premises for staff safety.
• Personal details of staff have been posted online. Threats include explicit references to rape, stabbing and retribution.
• NGOs say they are operating quietly, installing safe rooms, or relocating. Volunteers are scared to be visible.

This is classic intimidation. It aims to make the cost of speaking higher than the cost of staying silent. If it works on refugee caseworkers today, it will be used on trade union organisers tomorrow and climate campaigners the day after.

Why it matters

The UK’s ability to argue, organise and challenge power depends on civil society being free to operate without threats. You do not have to agree with every charity or case brought by every lawyer. You should still recognise that silencing them by menace is a direct attack on the rule of law and on the freedoms that protect all of us.

When groups warn that they are being pushed out of public view, believe them. Windrush taught us what happens when people lose advocates and the Home Office operates without scrutiny. Silence is not neutral. Silence is a policy choice.

The role of media and platforms

Words have consequences. Tabloids and viral accounts that frame migrant charities as enemies of the people are not bystanders. They are accelerants. Editors and presenters know this. The fix is not complex. Stop the demonising labels. Stop publishing inflammatory headlines that collapse human beings into a threat. Apply basic duty of care to social cut-downs.

Tech firms also have a choice. Doxxing and explicit threats breach their own rules. Enforce them quickly. Preserve evidence for police. Throttle the amplification loops that reward pile-ons with reach and cash.

What should happen now

Policing must treat rape and death threats as serious crimes, not as “online abuse”, pursuing every threat issued, and supporting every doxxed victim; the Labour government must condemn intimidation without hedging and make it clear that support for asylum seekers is lawful work in a lawful system, rather than conceding the narrative to Reform UK that asylum seekers are 'illegal'; additionally, Ofcom must apply the Broadcasting Code to segments that recklessly endanger individuals or groups, and be given new powers to enforce their rules against repeat offenders.

The line to hold

Helping someone claim asylum is not subversion. Challenging an unlawful decision is not extremism. Britain does not need to choose between border control and the people who defend due process. If you care about the country being decent and governed by law, you care about these organisations being able to do their jobs without fear.

The far right wants a public square where only they speak. We can decline that invitation. Speak plainly. Back the people doing the work. Insist on standards in the press and on platforms. Refuse to be frightened into silence.