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There is a “growing ugly underbelly” of racism that threatens Wales’ traditions of tolerance and internationalism, it has been claimed as the EU membership debate enters its final stages.

Pontypridd Labour AM Mick Antoniw is alarmed that an increasingly confident minority of people are voicing opinions that “used to be confined to the far right parties”.

Mr Antoniw – whose father was a refugee from Ukraine – fears that anti-immigration rhetoric could unleash “vociferous” racism.

There is a 'constant barrage of attacks on immigrants'

He said: “An element of racism has always been present but only amongst a very small minority , who usually kept their views to themselves, as a sort of shameful secret and for them being in, or outside the EU was never going to change their way of thinking.

"However, it is clear that there are increasing numbers of decent and well-intentioned people, who are not racist and would never consider themselves as racist, but who are being worn down by the constant barrage of outrageous claims by the Out campaign propagandists who promote a simple message that immigration is the main cause of all our problems .

“A constant barrage of attacks on immigrants by parties such as Ukip, backed by outrageous headlines in some of the tabloid papers is beginning to create a growing ugly underbelly [of] racism amongst a minority of the population which is becoming more vociferous and increasingly confident in espousing the sort of opinions which used to be confined to the far right parties.”

'Loaded up in trucks'

Giving an example, he said: “On the doorstep an NHS worker told me that her son couldn’t get a job because of the immigrants who it turned out were a Chinese family living across the road and working in a Chinese restaurant. More concerning was her comment that immigrants should be loaded up in trucks and sent back.

“When I told her that was what Hitler did to the Jews she just said ‘So what?’... One person was voting Out so his children could sleep safely at night without fear of being raped by immigrants.”

Mr Antoniw said the “real spirit of South Wales” has been on display in the response to the migrant crisis, with churches and local communities “offering homes and support for Syrian refugees in the Valleys.”

(Image: AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Genuine concerns

Acknowledging genuine concerns about immigration, he said: “Of course, the issue of immigration for many raises very genuine and valid concerns which need to be addressed; but sadly, serious answers to complex problems are not getting the publicity to counter the impact of the right-wing populism of the more extreme Out campaigners.

“We know that immigration has made a net financial benefit to our economy and that in Wales there are businesses that would probably have closed but for European workers. We know that parts of our health service are particularly dependent on care workers and would collapse without them.

“We also know that immigration is increasingly a two way process with well over a million British citizens living and working abroad. The irony of this last point was brought home when a taxi driver told me the country was finished because of all the immigrants and now had no future, so he was going to move abroad.”

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'We ignore this at our peril'

Warning that “building an ‘iron curtain’ of our own making will never work,” he said: “This distortion of the impact of immigration by the Out campaign is likely to leave us with the ugly legacy of a growing and more vociferous form of racism that will be increasingly open to exploitation by far right groups and parties. We ignore this at our peril.”

Highlighting traditions of tolerance in South Wales, he said: “In the 1930s we were at the forefront of welcoming refugees from the Spanish Civil War fleeing persecution by Franco’s fascist forces and later Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler’s persecution and it was South Wales miners who chased out Mosley’s blackshirts... The South Wales NUM was historically at the forefront of anti-racism campaigning being amongst the first to support renowned singer Paul Robeson during the American McCarthyite purges in the fifties by establishing a transatlantic link with the singer from its 1958 Miners Eisteddfod in Porthcawl and in the 1960s by opposing the apartheid regime in South Africa.”

'Irrelevant waffle'

However, Ross England of Vote Leave attacked the suggestion the Out campaign could be feeding racism, saying: “This is patronising, irrelevant waffle. It really is desperate stuff, and a clear sign that the remain campaign in Wales is becoming increasingly rattled ahead of the vote.

“Not only is it arrogant and offensive to denigrate decent people in such a way, it also partly explains why Welsh Labour is haemorrhaging votes to Ukip – because they are afraid to discuss issues like immigration honestly and reasonably.

“We are leading a positive campaign here in Wales, and we believe that a Vote to Leave would enable the UK to introduce a fairer system to deal with migration; one which doesn’t discriminate against people from other parts of the world, in favour of those from the EU. Despite the best efforts of the Welsh branch of the Project Fear campaign, it seems that the public are responding to our campaign to take back control and we are increasingly confident that Wales will Vote to Leave the EU on June 23.”

Ukip standing up for 'ordinary working people'

A spokesman for Ukip in the Assembly said: “The Labour Party supports uncontrolled mass immigration, currently adding a city the size of Cardiff to our population every year. The biggest losers from mass immigration are people on low incomes, whose wages are squeezed and rents increased by the extra demand for housing.

“That is why millions of ex-Labour voters are now voting Ukip. They are not racist and nor is Ukip. “Labour used to stand up for the poor and downtrodden but the metropolitan multicultural Left who now run the Labour party long since lost touch with the reality of life for ordinary working people. Ukip now speaks for them instead.”