York residents have been left in tears and fearing for their safety after receiving racist hate mail through the post.
The letters have been sent to several addresses in the city.
City of York Council has said they are horrified by the letter, and police are investigating it as a hate crime.
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Ali Gumusler said the letter was posted through the door of his property in Clifton Moor on (Wednesday).
His tenant opened it. The letter, printed out from a computer and littered with spelling mistakes, begins “We have won Brexit” and says “Its time for you to go back to werever you come from”.
Ali said his tenant, who is in her mid-20s and only recently moved to York, was very distressed.
“She rang me and I went there, she was crying and shaking,” he told YorkMix.
‘Worried about my kids’
He added. “It makes me worried as well. We live in the same area, it makes me worried about my kids’ futures.
“I have lived here for 22 years, we have never had people coming to our homes like this before. It makes you feel sad and it’s scary for families.”
He described those behind the letters as “hateful, ignorant idiots”. “We’re worried they could do worse,” he said.
“It could be someone we talk to every day. These kinds of people don’t show their face to you, they do this behind your back.
“Other people I know, from France and other countries, say we should be prepared to receive letters like this next. We don’t know what’s going to happen next.
“Tomorrow maybe they could come to our homes and do something worse.”
Ali implored everyone to do what they can to help the police catch the perpetrators.
Turn the anger into words
In a Twitter thread, one recipient of the hate campaign, Nicoletta Peddis, vowed not to be cowed by the racist who sent it.
Her and her Romanian neighbours received the same letter.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share it, but then I thought about how many times in the past 5 years I was a victim of xenophobic episodes and remarks and I didn’t share it because it was too painful to be turned into words. And not sharing it really impacted my mental health,” she writes.
“So, that’s why I’m sharing it today, to turn the pain and the anger into words and help me deal with the ugliness of the times we live in. I’m also sharing to encourage anyone who’s victim of similar episodes to report it to the Police, and to share it if you feel like.”
Her Twitter thread has been liked 5K times and been retweeted 2.5K times.
City of York Council tweeted: “We’re horrified to see this letter and have made [police] aware. Thank you for raising awareness of this. We’ve asked anyone in receipt of this letter or any other racist or hate crime to report it on 101 where support is available too.”
Additional reporting: Chloe Laversuch, local democracy reporter