In a community still reeling from the murder of a 16-year-old foreign student, questions are now being asked about the safety of visitors to Sussex. Emily-Ann Elliott looks at the reasons why students are targeted as victims of crime and the importance of making sure they are protected.

Outside a takeaway shop in Hastings, a book of condolence is being filled with messages for the family of 16-year-old Mohammed Al-Majed, from Qatar, who died after being attacked by local youths.

Other Arab students, many who have visited the town before to study English, express shock and distress that this could happen to a friend.

Some have already said they will not return to the town as they and their families feel too frightened.

Sultan Al-Dossary, from Saudi Arabia, said after hearing the news his parents wanted him to return home immediately.

He said: “This is a dangerous place. I will not be coming back.”

As well as being bad for the UK’s relations with other countries, these fears could have a negative effect on the economies of towns such as Hastings, where foreign students contribute up to £35 million to the local economy every year.

Councillor Peter Pragnell, the leader of Hastings Borough Council, said: “Students are a vital part of our economy and we have somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 every year.

“With this figure in mind, incidents of violence against students are very, very low and we must not forget that.

“Racism and violence will not be tolerated in Hastings and we will do everything in our power to prevent incidents such as this happening again.

“My thoughts are with Mohammed’s family and friends at this sad time.”

There are more than 20 language schools in Hastings alone and many other towns across Sussex play host to students from all over the world in the summer months.

While Sussex Police has reported the number of crimes against students in Hastings is down year on year, between April 1 and August 26 this year, 30 crimes have been recorded against foreign language students.

Of those, 12 were assaulted and four robbed.

In 2007, 32 crimes were reported, including 13 assaults and two robberies and in 2006, there were 36 crimes, 16 assaults and five robberies.

The other offences were mainly thefts.

Michael Foster, MP for Hastings and Rye, said: “It’s important to say that Hastings is essentially a safe place for visitors.

“Violent crime, attacks and indeed incidents involving foreign students have plummeted in recent times, which makes the tragedy involving Mohammed so exceptional.

“It’s important that both visitors to our town and ethnic groups who are now living here and part of our local community feel safe and secure.”

A meeting was held yesterday at Hastings Town Hall with Mr Foster, councillors, police and student leaders and representatives from ethnic groups to discuss the safety of students.

Mr Foster said: “We cannot overlook the fact that foreign investment through the language schools and into the local college are significant contributors to our local economy.

“It’s also the case that in recent times crime, particularly violent crime, has fallen dramatically, as have offences involving overseas students.

“This weekend’s tragic incident, therefore, is out of character with the way that the town is developing.”

Mohammed was murdered less than 100 yards away from Robertson Street, where a German teenager was punched and kicked in the face by a hoodie in an unprovoked attack last April.

Earlier this month, two 17-year-old German students were kicked and spat at by a group of teenage girls as they walked through the Meridian Centre, Peacehaven.

In July, a 17-year-old student from the Czech Republic was beaten unconscious by a group of six youths at Haywards Heath railway station. He suffered a broken ankle.

In previous years, foreign students have also been targeted in Brighton, where a Chinese student was threatened at knifepoint and robbed on the beach off Madeira Drive in 2004 and a student from China was punched in the mouth when two teenagers stole her phone in 2003.

Dr Alana Lentin, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Sussex, is an expert on racism and has written two books on the subject.

She said: “This isn’t a new issue but in a place like Hastings the majority of the population has been, until recently, white.

“People in Hastings have seen a big increase in people from different backgrounds moving in, whether they are migrant workers or students.

“However, what I think is new is the rhetoric being bandied about against multi-culturalism.

“When you hear your Prime Minister impose national values over multi-culturalism it is sending a strong message to all citizens of the UK – that anyone who doesn’t live by our rules, we have the right to be against and people feel legitimate in their actions.

“This kind of overriding discourse that we shouldn’t be promoting multi-culturalism is not only coming from the bottom up.

Education is one of the things needed to change this but for me the main thing that needs to change is discourse that comes down from the top. In places like Hastings what has to happen is meetings between people of different backgrounds.

“On one hand you might have migrants who may not have very good English but are also fearful of a new place and on the other hand you have local people being distrustful of what is coming into their community.

“Funding needs to be put in place in so they can be put in contact with each other.

“As human beings they will probably have more in common than they think. Only fear comes from the unknown.”

Dr Lentin added that as a result of global issues and media portrayals, people from countries such as Qatar are often viewed in a different way to those from European countries.

She said: “We assume that if somebody is a young male Arab, speaking Arabic or looking a certain way, they are racially perceived as some kind of threat.

“We don’t see them in the same was as we see students from, say, Spain, and we need to ask why.”

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