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BURNLEY (England): Fifteen-year-old Ayab has lots of school friends, but they rarely visit his neighbourhood because they are scared of people shouting at them or throwing eggs.
The young Bangladeshi lives in an immigrant community in the northern English town of Burnley where Asian and white young people fought each other in the streets a year ago. A pub and several cars were set on fire. More than 20 people were arrested.
Burnley is the only place in Britain where the extremist anti-immigrant British National Party (BNP) won seats in a local election in early May.
“I have a lot of white friends. But when they come down our street, they could be shouted abuse at. I’ve seen people throwing eggs and tomatoes at people’s cars just for the fun of it,” Ayab said.
About seven percent of Burnley’s 92,000 inhabitants are from ethnic minorities, mainly of South Asian heritage. Most live in just a few concentrated areas.
Ayab’s home is in Daneshouse, the most deprived part of the borough and among the worst one percent of urban areas in England, according to government statistics. Rows of small terraced houses line the streets, some of which are so narrow that two cars cannot pass.
“The only time we can get together with white people is at school or at youth centres,” said Ayab, adding that his parents worried about him going to white communities.
“We went to a gardening project with our youth club and I had to lie to my parents that we had a police escort,” he said. “Elderly people in our area are very tense at the moment, after the BNP (British National Party) victory.”
Only a few streets away from Ayab’s neighbourhood, some mainly white areas look similarly run down.
Some entire streets are uninhabited. Wooden planks block windows. Rubble and junk cover the pavement. Several houses are burnt out.
More than a quarter of the terraced houses in inner Burnley are seen unfit as homes, according to an inquiry launched after last year’s riots.
The report said poverty was one of the main problems in the town. About 40 per cent
of homes are dependent on some kind of state income subsidy.
NO AMBITIONS: Lisa O’Neill works with young people from socially deprived white areas. After the riots last year, the arts development worker invited young people to theatre and music workshops to think about racism and talk about their life in Burnley.
“There is little to do for young people in Burnley. They are not happy with the places they live in,” she said.
PROTEST VOTES: Malik did not think the three BNP councillors would have any impact on council decisions. But the other parties had to react to the fact that so many people had issued a protest vote, he says.
Natalie Murton, a white teenager, said one of her friends wanted to vote BNP because he thought asylum seekers were getting more money than his mother, who lived on benefits.
—Reuters
