Charity workers have revealed widespread fears around their safety and the frequency of threats and harassment they have faced, in a report released this week.

This includes death and rape threats, and ‘doxxing’ where charity workers’ and volunteers’ personal details have been published online.

Racist and Islamophobic comments are also detailed.

One charity said that thinking about threats and harassment “has become business as usual”.

The report by Asylum Matters and Praxis gathered the views of just over 200 charities and 125 charity workers and has been sent to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is called on to better protect charities.

Researchers found that nearly half of respondents had experienced “actual threats or harassment" and almost three in four warn they feel less safe delivering support compared to three years ago.

Two in three say they have altered their delivery of services because of perceived threats or risk.

“This is devastating to charities,” say researchers.

“Organisations report diverting resources away from frontline work, introducing costly security measures, restricting public events and spending increasing amounts of time managing risks. Staff, volunteers and service users report heightened stress, fear and burnout.

“And yet, these charities continue to find ways to deliver vital support to those in need.”

The report describes that “one charity run for and by disabled people reported its social media account being ‘plastered with slurs against disabled people’.

“Several organisations supporting migrants and refugees, in particular, reported their staff or service users being filmed without their consent, which led to fears of further abuse after footage was posted online,” added researchers.

Urgent action

A statement, signed by respondents, tells Burnham that “your Government must urgently explore how to better protect all charities and charitable work from such attacks”.

They add: “It must further address the role of social media in spreading threats, to ensure those spreading false information, or participating in the targeting of our work and the people delivering it are accountable for the violence they drive.

“And it must ensure that vigilantes abusing, threatening and assaulting people in our country are no longer referred to as ‘protesters’, a term that conveys legitimacy they do not deserve.”

Lifeboat crews targeted

The report's concerns come amid a wave of intimidation by right wing protestors of lifeboat crews, linked to their role saving lives at sea.

In September East Sussex Pett Level Independent Rescue Boat charity reported that a group had tracked its crew’s movements while answering a call-out and then subjected it a social media attack involving “inflammatory, damaging and entirely inaccurate information”.

RNLI crews have also been targeted, with the charity’s chief executive Peter Sparkes condemning threats from “those who would hide behind a balaclava or a keyboard”.

---