Meet the woman fighting back against anti-immigration rhetoric

Nazek Ramadan knows what it is like to feel unwanted in Britain.

The director of Migrant Voice, the organisation fighting back against anti-immigrant rhetoric in the run up to the election, faced repeated abuse when she first arrived in the UK.

Fleeing Lebanon with her husband and two children in the mid-Eighties, she ended up in east London, where strangers shouted “dirty Arab” in the street and set their dogs on her. Incidents like these inspired Ms Ramadan, 53, to set up Migrant Voice.

The charity was one of the groups responsible for the “I am an Immigrant” posters springing up across the country which promote the contributions of foreigners to Britain.

In London, Birmingham and Glasgow, a new newspaper also called Migrant Voice tells uplifting and under-reported stories of immigrants in Britain.

Ms Ramadan believes the British public have become more tolerant since the 1980s – though she still hears stories of abuse. She is more worried about politicians and the media today.

The policies towards migrants 30 years ago were better. They are much more strict now. The worst is indefinite detention, there’s no limit on the time you can detain someone for immigration purposes. Family migration rules are awful too because they are splitting up families. We know people who’ve been separated from their children for 10, 11 years or more.

Her experiences have made her more determined than ever to fight for those who have gone through so much to get to Britain. “It’s better that we work together to address the real problems in society,” she says, “rather than blaming one group who aren’t heard because they don’t speak up.”

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