A vulnerable British – Pakistani woman in Huddersfield is now terrified to be at home because of racist abuse from her neighbours. Vile abuse from her neighbour has been ongoing for the last three years, said the Lockwood woman, who asked not to be named. The abuse is so bad she said she could “no longer relax in her own home”.
The woman in her mid 20s, has dealt with regular racist remarks from her neighbour being called p**** and has been told to ‘go back to her country’, and more tremendous levels of recurring abuse.
However, this one incident resulted in her calling the police as she went to put her rubbish in the bin her ‘drunk neighbour’ started shouting at her to ‘go back to her own country’ and that she shouldn’t be here alongside other racial slurs. The neighbour then threatened that they would ‘kill her’ and started to throw and kick plastic chairs around in their garden, and then the neighbour said they will jump over the wall and throw a ‘ceramic and clay garden pots at her’. This led the woman to feel terrified as she ran back inside her home and dialled 999, and started to record the verbal abuse her neighbour was shouting over the garden wall, so she had evidence of the abuse and in hopes that the neighbour wouldn’t get off with ‘just a warning’ as she has in the past.
She said that the police officers that arrived shortly after were “shocked” by the behaviour and how she has been dealing with it for three years. The women kept track of every incident, racial slurs that have been said to her to show to the police how frequently this happens. After statements were taken restraining orders were placed to ensure this didn’t keep occurring and that she would feel safer in her own home. But she was disappointed on how long it has taken for some actions to take place.
Race hate crimes rose by more than 25% in the year up to March 2022, according to Home Office data – the biggest rise since 2017.
The woman said that racism is still on the rise even in 2023, and some actions need to be taken so this doesn’t happen to anyone else as this was definitely a race hate issue. She said but I got lucky that nothing escalated but some might not be as lucky as I was.