UK day for migrants

Coinciding with UN World Day of Social Justice, around 100 events were planned throughout the UK.

The events aim to fight anti-migrant sentiments which arose after the Brexit vote, according to Matt Carr, who initiated One Day Without Us.

“We had had enough of seeing migrants and foreigners – or simply people who looked and sounded foreign – being abused and harassed in our streets and denigrated by politicians,” Carr said in a statement ahead of the day.

“We are now on the brink of something unprecedented and rather special – a national day of action in support of migrants in the UK,” he added.

Migrants and non-migrants in the UK who support the initiative were encouraged to wear badges, hang posters in shop windows and post photos to social media with the hashtag #1DayWithoutUs, in a show of unity.

They were also asked to link arms and hold up placards at 1pm, while groups of migrants bearing the flags of their countries of origin gathered outside parliament in London.

Meanwhile civil rights organisation New Europeans and the UNISON trade union lobbied MPs to “guarantee unilaterally the rights of EU citizens living in the UK”.

Also on Monday, a bill to initiate the UK's exit from the European Union was to be submitted to the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, after the lower chamber, the House of Commons, passed the bill without an amendment which would guarantee the rights of EU nationals in the UK. (vb/pk)