Ongoing : The Monitoring Group Race Advocacy Service
We provide a advocacy service for victims of racism. Some of this work is part of the CATCH project, a London-wide Hate crime partnership. We have over 40 years experience of helping people suffering racism in the country, and are one of the leading agencies on tackling race hate crime in the UK.
You can learn more about the work here.
1: What are the current challenges faced by the Advocacy Service?
From the beginning of the current pandemic in March 2020, last year, to March this year, our race advocacy service has been saturated with new referrals. We have dealt with a staggering 2000 race related incidents of which over 1,700 have been referrals from the CATCH project. Most of these cases have also been reported to the Metropolitan Police.
Other cases involve policing and domestic violence issues, especially discriminatory stop & searches and State misconduct during the lockdown
With regard to race hate crimes, we are witnessing the targeting of new communities – most notably people of Chinese and East Asian origin because they are being wrongly blamed for causing the epidemic; and people working in different professions. They include emergency and care workers and those working in the night gig economy.
According to the latest official data, the capital presents the following ‘race’ landscape, some of it is very worrying. London is most diverse city in Europe. According to the 2011 census data the population of London was 8,173,941; broken down by ethnicity & religion the population of London is 59.8% white, 19.7% Asian or mixed Asian descent and 15.6% are Black or Mixed Black descent. Religion wise, 48.4% of the population identify as Christian, 12.4% as Muslim, 5% as Hindu, 1.8% as Jewish and 1.5% as Sikh.
Race Hate Incidents and Crimes
• The current drivers of the increase in race hate crimes include comments made by politicians and other public figures regarding minority groups; the language and narrative around Brexit; reaction to BLM protests following incidents in the USA; the fall out during Covid 19 and the targeting of people of SEA origin
• Race related hate crime is the most prominent type of hate crime accounting for 80% (17240) of all hate crime offences.
• Men, at 54% are more likely to be victims of hate crime than Women (41%)
• Ethnicity of victims: European (white and combined – so called ‘dark’ Europeans) 24%, Black 23%, Asian 16%, ‘Oriental’, and Arabian / Egyptian both 2%. Victims are mostly in the age group 30 to 39 (31%) followed by age group 20 to 29 (22%) and 40 to 49 (19%). Please note - the wording used in this section is the language used in official sources, it is not the language we would use.
• Locations: Areas with higher populations of Jewish, Asian or African/Caribbean heritage communities tend to be disproportionately targeted when compared to areas with higher density of white communities
Stop and Searches
• During lockdown, crimes rates fell but stop and searches increased in London. From March 2020 to May 2020, for instance, 21,950 stop and searches took place and over 80% resulted in ‘no further action’. In May 2020 alone, one in eight young black males in London were stopped and searched.
For us, the current period is one of the most troubling in our entire history. At an operational level our services are overstretched and at a breaking point unless we can galvanise new resources. We also want to ensure that we don’t lose the quality of our assistance despite the increase in the volume of referrals. At a strategic level, the challenges are enormous given the exposure and prevalence of racial inequality in every domain of our society. We need to build effective partnerships with other organisations that share our ethos and values so that we achieve positive outcomes
2: What areas of advice does the Advocacy Service cover ?
We provide advice and assistance on the following areas.
Racially and religiously motivated ‘hate crimes’ regardless of where the incident takes place – in or outside your home; in your neighbourhood or estate; at a station; in school, college or university; in a city or leisure centre; or at an institution – police station, prison, detention centre etc.
Racial discrimination
Domestic and Sexual Violence
Policing: Stop & Search; Arrest; Charging and Trial; Use of Tasers; Misconduct and use of violence; Unexplained or Suspicious Deaths or Murder investigations if they have a race or/and sexist element; Police Complaints; Criminal Injuries Compensation Awards and your rights on emergency powers and protests.
Inquests and Public Inquires
3: What are your opening hours for the Advocacy Service?
Our opening hours are from 10am to 6pm from Monday to Friday.
Our office is closed for Lunch daily from 12.30pm to 2pm
Our telephone system allows people to leave a message
4: How long has the Group providing advice?
We have been providing assistance since we were established in early 1980’s.
Please check our website on our history and some of the cases/campaigns we have dealt with
5: What happens when I contact the Advocacy Service?
When a person contacts us or is referred to us, we will contact them by email or contact you by email or telephone message within 4 days and speak to you within 7 days.
Our initial call will involve gathering important information on a case. Once that happens, we make an assessment. We may decide to
• Offer you advice only or/and
• Assist you or/and
• Refer you to a more suitable organisation
The assessment may take some time depending our capacity, but we promise to complete the process as speedily as possible and inform you of our decision.
URGENT CASES: If your case is URGENT – for example where someone has suffered a fatality - we will contact you within 24 hours if not immediately
STRICT CONFIDENTIALITY: Throughout the whole process – from the initial contact to closure – we promise strict privacy and confidentiality. We do not share any information with any third party unless we have the client’s consent to do so.
6: What does the Advocacy Service involve?
Our Advocacy Service tries to ensure that we:
• Work with our clients so they are fully informed on the steps we take
• Provide clients with update information
• Organise case conferences with agencies to move the case forward
• Prepare and make oral and written representations
• Contact an MP for support
• Get advice from specialist lawyers if necessary
• Work with our partners if the case is complex
7: What are Public Interest Campaigns?
They may be cases that require a more public profile to achieve any form of accountability. In these cases, we explore all options including the use of all forms of media and developing a public interest campaign. The decision on the use of media and campaigns are always taken together with clients. Unless clients consent, we do not ever contact the media or launch a campaign. Our campaigns are always self-funded where those directly affected are the centre of decision-making process. Legal assistance on campaigns in gained by instructing lawyers who will have the conduct of the legal aspects of your case. In public interest cases, we try and build a partnership between lawyers, clients and ourselves so all of us are working in the client’s interests and ensure that campaigning activity always helps the legal challenges. Our work with the media is also based on the same principles.
For an example of one of our current Public Interest Campaigns, please view information on this website on the case of young 13-year-old Christopher Kapessa, who was killed by being pushed into a river in South Wales on 1st July 2019. See link here:
Our definition of a Public Interest Campaign is where a case or an issue involves :
• A Loss of life
• Holding State agencies to account for their failures, negligence, misconduct, institutional racism and corruption
• A positive change in legislation, policy or practice
• The potential presence of Best Practice or where key lessons can be learnt
• The continuing legacy of historical racism including slavery, colonialism, Genocide or Crimes against Humanity
8: Do clients pay for the Advocacy Service?
Our services are free of charge. Clients do not pay for our services.
However, if at any stage we use lawyers, you may need to pay for their services if legal aid is not granted. If legal aid is partially granted, you may need to make a contribution to the legal aid services.
If cases are not funded through the legal aid system, clients will need to pay for any court/tribunal administration fees.
All these steps will be discussed with you in advance.
9: Is the Advocacy Service for Londoners or is it National?
We are happy to provide advice to anyone in the UK.
However, our advocacy work nationally is only partially funded so we normally provide advocacy in a small number public interest case.
Currently we are collating data for national organisations so that we make referrals.
We are also applying for funding for national advocacy workers. If we are successful, we will update this section.
In London our hate crime (racially motivated) advocacy service is funded through the CATCH project. This is a partnership of some of the key groups providing assistance on all the different strands of hate crimes. The CATCH project is coordinated by a group called GALOP that receives funding on this project from the Mayor’s Office in London
Unfortunately, all our other work is not funded but we continue to provide advice and assistance due to need and our ethos. We try our best not to turn people away. If we turn people away it is not necessarily because their case does not deserve attention. Sometimes it is simply to do with our lack of resources or expertise as we are a small organisation.
Volunteers: We would not be able to provide help without the commitment and generosity of our volunteers, who are real stars of this service. They are all trained to take initial statements and respect confidentiality
10: Do provide advice in other languages in addition to English?
Yes, we can provide general advice in some other languages, please contact us for more information.
11: How does one contact the Advocacy Service?
We can be contacted by our office phone: 020 7582 7438 or office email: office@tmg-uk.org
If you contact us please leave a clear message with your name, telephone number and the reason for your contact.
It would be helpful if you could fill in a REFERRAL FORM on our website or send it via our office email
The referral form can be filled by any group or agency that wishes to referral clients as well
Alternatively, you can post a letter and send it our office address:
The Monitoring Group, Ground Floor, 2 Langley Lane, London SW8 1GB
———-
The CATCH (Community Against Hate Partnership) consists of the following
Galop : Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender hate crime
The Monitoring Group : Race hate crime
The Community Security Trust (CST) : Antisemitic hate crime
TellMAMA : Anti-Muslim (Islamophobic) hate crime
Choice in Hackney : Anti-Disability hate crime
Stay Safe East : Anti-Disability hate crime
Real : Anti-Disability hate crime
You can read about the project at https://www.catch-hatecrime.org.uk