British Sikh MP flags “rising hate crimes”, seeks ‘urgent action’

London: Expressing grave concern over “rising hate crimes”  against her community in the UK, Preet Kaur Gill, an Indian-origin British Sikh MP, has in a letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman,  sought protection and urgent action to check the menace.

Quoting hate crime statistics 2021-22, Gill, an MP from Birmingham, said hate crimes against Sikhs rose by 169 per cent in comparison to a 38 per cent increase in reported religious hate crimes overall.

“I am deeply concerned by these new statistics. 301 hate crimes against Sikhs were reported in 2021-22, up from 112 in 2020-21. The 169 per cent increase is compared to a 38 per cent increase in reported religious hate crimes overall”, Gill said in the letter, which she released on Twitter on Monday.

The 2001 census recorded 336,000 Sikhs living in Britain.

Gill said 301 hate crimes against Sikhs were reported in 2021-22, up from 112 in 2020-2021.

The letter, which was also addressed to Simon Clarke, secretary of the department for levelling up, housing and communities (DLUHC), comes as 28 year-old Claudio Capos from Manchester was awarded a three year jail term recently for attacking 62-year-old Avtar Singh in broad daylight this June.

Singh had suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, a stroke caused by bleeding on the brain and multiple fractures to his cheek, jaw and eye socket as a result of the attack, the BBC reported.

Gill, in her letter, urged Braverman to implement the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report on British Sikhs, which was published in 2020.

The report found that the lack of an official term was a contributing factor as to why crimes against Sikhs go largely “unnoticed, unreported and unrecorded”.

This report, Gill said, was shared with both the home secretary and communities secretary at the time and was an attempt to consult the government on the definition of Anti-Sikh hate.

“However, despite multiple promises of substantive response and offers of a meeting, the home office and DLUHC, between them, have failed to respond,” she added.IANS