Protesters gathered outside Rotherham Council’s headquarters to stand against ‘Valentine’s cards to refugees’ claims
The concern about the activities of the City of Sanctuary organisation in schools has been growing for a week or more. Lists of schools throughout the noooorth, Cheshire, Merseyside, Salford, West Yorkshire, children encouraged to write ‘Valentines’ cards welcoming refugees to their town. Parents very worried, unhappy that their childre had to take part, or determined that their children would not be taking part.
The Daily Motion has a short video clip of concerned parents outside Rotherham Town Hall, and the usual ‘refugee’ fan boys opposing them.
The caption reads “Groups of protesters and counter protesters met outside Riverside House, after misinformation about the City of Sanctuary charity was spread online.”
This assertion of ‘misinformation’ is repeated in the Rotherham Advertiser.
A PROTEST about debunked claims schoolchildren sent Valentine’s cards to refugees in Rotherham has been met with similar sized opposition.An estimated 40 protesters, some carrying England flags, gathered outside Rotherham Council’s headquarters on Main Street, spurred on by conspiracies online about an initiative by the City of Sanctuary charity called ‘Show Your Heart for Refugees This Valentine’s Day’.
They were met by a similar number of pro-refugee counter protesters with banners and a loud speaker.
The City of Sanctuary said it was aware of a far right group circulating “false and inflammatory” material about its Schools of Sanctuary programme which aimed to offer a “simple act of welcome.”
It added: “This material includes dangerous misrepresentations of school activities and is being used to mobilise people to protest.
The Chronicle (the Newcastle and NE newspaper) has parroted the same press release, but without news of any protest.
Since 2016, the number of Schools of Sanctuary have been growing in the North East. This is a status awarded to schools by City of Sanctuary UK to help promote a welcoming environment for every child and encourage kindness.
But this week the group has been hit with a barrage of abuse after rumours started circulating about an activity within a small number of schools in the UK. The rumours claimed that children were being forced to write Valentine’s Day cards to migrant men, including cards addressed to “my Fiancé”.
This immediately sparked concern, upset and anger from thousands of people, including many people in the North East. This article examines the rumours, takes a look at what a School of Sanctuary is and its prominence within the North East.
The Schools of Sanctuary programme was created by the group City of Sanctuary UK, which was founded in Sheffield in 2005.
The City of Sanctuary has called the claims made online “false and inflammatory”, adding that they dangerously misrepresent school activities
One of these activities – titled ‘Show Your Heart for Refugees This Valentine’s Day’ – suggests schools “share a message of kindness and compassion” by creating a “twist on a Valentine’s Day card”.
The creations are asked to feature an orange heart symbol, signifying solidarity with people seeking safety. Staff, children and parents have the option to write anonymised messages of welcome and kindness on the creations, such as “Welcome to our town” or “We hope you feel safe here”.
The City of Sanctuary said the activity being misrepresented – carried out in a small number of schools across the UK – did not involve children writing personal Valentine’s cards or love letters to adults seeking asylum.
It comes after a number of posts began circulating on social media claiming that young children were being forced to write Valentine’s Day cards to migrant men. One post shared a screenshot of articles on the City of Sanctuary website, centring on one headlined “Roses are red, violets are blue…” which was accompanied by a photo of three shop-bought Valentine’s Day cards on a dining table.
In the photo, one of the cards has “For my Fiancé” printed on the front, another reads “Roses are red, violets are blue” and the third, which stands front and centre of the photo, reads “I love you”. The word “you” has been covered with yellow tape with “refugee rights” written on it.
On the City of Sanctuary website, the image and headline is used to illustrate an article suggesting people “Ditch the naff gimmicks” on Valentine’s Day and “stand up for refugee rights”
City of Sanctuary added that it is pursuing legal advice and reporting all threats to the police.
They will be needing that legal advice soon: From the Telegraph
Sir Gavin Williamson, the former Tory education secretary, has written to the Charity Commission urging it to investigate Schools of Sanctuary, a branch of the City of Sanctuary charity.
He claimed the organisation is “engaging in political activity and campaigning that is not consistent with its charitable purpose”.
A spokesman for the watchdog confirmed that it was assessing a complaint into “alleged political activity” linked to City of Sanctuary.
The watchdog is currently at the early stages of its assessment and has not yet drawn any conclusions.
The Schools of Sanctuary said on its website that it is “a registered charity and therefore apolitical”.
Sir Gavin told the watchdog there were “numerous examples of instances” where he
claimed the charity was acting politically, including the Valentine’s Day scheme.
“It encourages its beneficiaries to engage in overtly political activity: for example, a post on its website encourages schoolchildren to send Valentine’s Day cards to asylum seekers, with examples depicting slogans such as ‘Stop the Rwanda scheme’.”
The former Cabinet minister also cited charity literature that said “the UK asylum system is deliberately hostile” to asylum seekers, and that Government legislation contributed to “feeding […] racism and stressing community cohesion”.
If the Charity Commission decides to launch an inquiry and it finds misconduct, it can order a charity to take steps to remedy its actions.
The Birmingham branch of the Schools of Sanctuary group shared a group on its X account which showed images of three pupils holding a large card, which the network says will “be given to refugee recipients”.
Their X account is now ‘protected’ and nothing is visible. Their website is defunct. What a surprise.
Another held a “Special Refugee Day” on Valentine’s Day, which included talks from refugees to young children, who were then directed to create messages and hearts for the immigrants.
As one of the most perceptive comments to that Telegraph report says
- Such cards may be used as excuses for abusing children! ‘They sent us cards with hearts’ …
Before they disappear from the main website.
I don’t regard the City of Sanctuary merely denying that children have been directed to write cards to migrants as sufficient to ‘debunk’ the parent’s claims. Debunking needs some conclusive explanation and evidence.