Migrants urged to report crimes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/6416579.stm

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Lincolnshire Police have launched a scheme to allow migrant workers to report hate crimes anonymously.

Officers hope it will allow them to build up a better picture of the scale of the problem.

Police believe language barriers, fear of reprisals or distrust of the authorities is stopping people from coming forward.

Leaflets in Portuguese, Russian and Polish are being distributed telling them how to report crimes anonymously.

No figures exist for the scale of crimes against the migrant community but police believe those going unreported include abuse, harassment, bullying, criminal damage to property and also physical assaults.

Home Office figures show 50,000 racially or religiously motivated incidents reported last year. The British Crime Survey estimates the true number at 260,000.

In Lincolnshire there were 263 racially or religiously motivated crimes reported to the police.