Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Attacks on the rise against Poles in UK

As more and more Brits are losing out in competition with well-qualified and cheap labour from Poland, the number of hate-crimes against Poles is growing.

Michal Kasztelan, a 28-year-old Pole currently working as a carpenter in Edinburgh, was beaten up because of his nationality. The three men who started kicking him kept screaming that he was taking their jobs away and calling him names such as "You f***ing Polish c**t!," reports Rzeczpospolita daily.

"Poles are being assaulted more and more frequently, primarily in small towns and in the countryside,” says Wiktor Moszczynski from the Federation of Poles in Great Britain, and author of the "Hate-Crimes against Poles in UK in 2007" report.

The document describes 50 instances of assault on Poles based on reports from local media.

According to the London Metropolitan police force, 48 hate-crimes against Poles were committed between December 2006 and November 2007, but this figure may actually be significantly higher, since many victims do not report attacks, adds Moszczynski.

"We don't mind Poles' presence,” says Simon Darby, spokesman for the far-right British National Party (BNP), quoted by Rzeczpospolita. "But when someone loses their job because the employer prefers to hire a Pole who is ready to work for much less, it is easy to understand the frustration. What would be the reaction in Poland, if all of a sudden 2 million people flooded the Polish job market," remarked Darby.

"If it turns out that we are indeed talking about hate crimes, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have no other option but to take action", said Krzysztof Lisek, head of the Parliamentary Commission for Foreign Affairs of the ruling Civic Platform (PO) party.
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