Top police officer Neil Basu is from an ethnic minority in the UK. He admitted that in his role he had to deal with real threats from the far right against Meghan and Harry, the youngest son of current King Charles III.
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His statements, in an interview with British channel Channel 4 on Tuesday night, reinforce the fears expressed by Harry, 38, about the safety of the former actress, 41, whom he married in 2018.
Citing pressure from the British tabloid press and a hostile environment towards Meghan, the couple left the royal family in 2020 and moved to the United States.
At the time, Harry publicly criticized the coverage of Meghan by some media outlets and condemned the “blatant racism of trolls on social media and comments on articles on the web”.
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The couple even accused an unidentified member of the royal family of racism in an explosive 2021 interview with American television star Oprah Winfrey.
Basu, who will soon step down from his role after 30 years at Scotland Yard, said the death threats against the duchess were “disgusting and very real”. “We had teams to investigate them and people were prosecuted for these threats,” he added.
Deportation
Basu, whose father is Indian, also criticized the “horrible” rhetoric about migrants from some prominent conservative politicians of Asian origin.
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The Interior Minister, the ultra-conservative Suella Braverman, described Albanian asylum seekers as “criminals”. Braverman, who is also of Indian origin, defends a controversial British government plan to deport to Rwanda, an African country 6.500 kilometers from London, migrants and refugees who arrive in the United Kingdom illegally. Denounced by several organizations, the project is being analyzed by the courts.
For Basu, this speech is “inexplicable”.
“It is shocking to hear powerful politicians speak language that would bring back memories of my father in 1968,” he said, referring to a speech by Conservative MP Enoch Powell about the so-called race war in the UK over immigration.
“I talk about racial issues because (…) I am a 54-year-old mixed-race man,” said Basu, acknowledging that this may have prevented him from being appointed to the direction of the National Crime Agency.
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(With AFP)
