Post Brexit, UK has witnessed a rising anti-immigration sentiment in the UK, in a series of demonstrations across the country. On Saturday more than 30,000 of anti-racism activists rallied in central London aiming at the increasing number of attacks on foreigners in the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union last year.
Similar demonstrations, which were organised to mark the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, drew crowds in the Welsh capital Cardiff, and in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
Many activists condemned the government's refusal to guarantee residency for EU nationals living in the UK after it leaves in just over two years time.
June's Referendum vote led to a dramatic rise in racist attacks on visible minorities and immigrants from EU countries. Hate crimes for the July to September quarter rose from 10,793 incidents in 2015 to 14,295 in 2016, according to a report published in February by the Press Association, which was derived from police statistics.
Despina Karayianni, a Greek national living in London, told Al Jazeera that the British Prime Minister Theresa May was using EU nationals like her as "bargaining chips".
Shreya Banerjee, an Indian banker in the UK told Asian Voice, “It is not just confined to non EU nationals. I am Indian and post Brexit, I was told to leave this country and go away, by random people on the road. It was shocking.”
Dharam Singh, a City Worker said, “Because I wear a turban, after Brexit, I had people throwing pebbles at me, calling me 'Paki' and asking me to go back to my home. My home is Birmingham, and I am in my country. My dad said it was like the 70s again."
Theresa May has formally announced UK's intent to leave the EU by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on 29th March, sparking negotiations on a wide array of issues, including the fate of nearly three million EU nationals living in Britain.
Tom Corbin, an activist from the western English county of Wiltshire, told Al Jazeera that the rhetoric attached to Brexit had encouraged people to "speak in a way they hadn't spoken for years".
"(Brexit) has given people an excuse to have racist views towards immigrants," he said, adding he held the political class responsible for the rise in xenophobic sentiment.
"I don't hold Theresa May singularly responsible, it was David Cameron (her predecessor) who instigated Brexit and I think him and the Conservative party have an awful lot to answer for."
The Conservative party government has condemned the rise in xenophobic violence, which it says has "no place whatsoever" in British society.
Addressing the rally in Parliament Square, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg said: “This country was built by people who migrated from outside – the language, the customs, the culture all come from outside.
“The anti-racism movement has managed to smash the British National Party and the English Defence League, but some of their views have become mainstream.”
Begg added: “Donald Trump says he is going to load up Guantanamo Bay with ‘bad dudes’. I say to Trump ‘When are you going?’”
Siema Iqbal, from MEND said: "I have had enought of wondering if my dad will be killed on his way back from the Mosque....of being viewed through a lens of security and suspicion because I am Muslim. As a Muslim woman I have had enough of being told what I can and cant wear. Racism is like a house fire. Just because it is affecting the Muslim community it will spread and it will effect other communities"
