Refugee safety concerns raised over Reform post featuring ‘misleading’ AI image

Emily Price

Serious concerns have been raised about the safety of refugees in Caerphilly after a Reform UK branch published a “misleading” AI image of a queue of Black people with a caption claiming they were receiving social housing ahead of local people.

Reform’s official Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Rhymney Facebook account boasted that it had found out via Freedom of Information requests the number of refugees that had been placed in social housing by Caerphilly Council in the last three years.

Although the information appeared to relate to people who had been granted official refugee status, the page published a synthetic image of 24 Black asylum seekers, mostly men, queuing on a housing estate, with the man at the front of the line holding out his hand.

The image carried the caption: “They tried to hide this… asylum seekers given Caerphilly council houses.”

The branch went on to suggest that the 18 refugees had been able to obtain social housing faster that people born in Wales.

When social media commentators questioned the use of the AI image, the Reform branch argued it was “representative of asylum seeker demographics”.

Some commentators who challenged the branch’s claims about refugees found their comments deleted and their access to the page blocked.

Those that questioned why some comments were being deleted were blocked too.

Yuliia Bond – a Ukrainian refugee living in Caerphilly – commented on the post warning that three refugee families living in social housing in the borough had already been targeted.

However, Bond’s comment was deleted and her access to Reform’s Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Rhymney Facebook page was blocked.

Her comment read: “There are many serious reasons why people wait too long for social housing: empty homes, housing shortages, planning delays, too little building and years of underinvestment. But apparently we are now supposed to believe that 18 refugees housed since 2023 are the problem for an entire county.

“Refugees can and do work, contribute and pay taxes. Someone granted refugee status is not an ‘illegal migrant’ they have been recognised as needing protection after fleeing war, persecution or serious danger. They came here looking for safety.

“Three Ukrainian families in this borough have already been targeted in their social housing, families who fled a war with their kids, with incidents reported to the police and concerns raised with the council.

“So please think very carefully about what posts framed like this actually do.

“When you single out 18 refugees in the middle of a social housing crisis affecting thousands, you are not solving the housing crisis – you are giving people someone to blame for it.

“Is that really where we want public anger directed? And if that anger reaches another refugee family’s front door, who takes responsibility then?”

The Reform Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Rhymney branch later claimed the social housing data it had obtained excluded Ukrainian refugees.

In a Facebook post tagging Reform’s Welsh leader Dan Thomas, Ms Bond said the deletion of her comment “raised serious questions about democratic debate, transparency and how a political party responds to public scrutiny”.

She said: “Political parties absolutely have the right to argue their policies.

“But democracy also depends on those policies being questioned, challenged and scrutinised, particularly when political messaging singles out a tiny and vulnerable group of people.”

Ms Bond added: “I am particularly concerned about what happens beyond Facebook.

“I am concerned about innocent people being targeted in their own homes, because this is not a hypothetical concern. It is already happening.

“Refugee families in this borough have already experienced harassment around their homes.

“These are human beings who came here looking for safety. They should not become convenient targets for anger about a housing crisis they did not create.”

Refugees who have been granted legal status gain the legal right to live and work in the UK which permits them to join council waiting lists on the same terms as other applicants.

They do not automatically receive priority or jump the queue ahead of local people.

Asylum seekers still waiting for a decision on their asylum claim cannot access social housing or join social housing waiting lists.

Nation.Cymru asked Reform’s Blaenau Gwent Caerphilly Rhymney branch chair Jan Walsh why she was blocking Facebook commentators who challenged her branch’s claims.

We asked if she understood the difference between asylum seekers and refugees and if she believed that all refugees were Black.

We also asked if the Freedom of Information details she had obtained had revealed that the 18 refugees living in Caerphilly were Black men.

Ms Walsh did not respond to our questions.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.