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TEHRAN, December 19 - The UK government’s newly-released statistics for its signature anti-terror scheme, known as Prevent, shows how the policy continues to increasingly target and focus security on children, according to an advocacy group.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The CAGE showed in a report published on its website on Tuesday that thousands of children and teenagers were being flagged up over terror concerns in the UK.
A Report by the group showed that some 2,009 under-15s, including 297 girls, had been referred to the Prevent program in the year to March.
The controversial scheme is essentially a system which aims to identify vulnerable people and intervene in their lives before something bad happens.
While police and ministers say Prevent forms a crucial plank of anti-terror efforts, the scheme has repeatedly come under fire, with critics labeling it heavy-handed and “toxic”.
The CAGE report showed that the number of people from the youngest age group referred to the Prevent increased by a fifth from the previous period ending in March 2017, while it added that more than half of those reported for possible de-radicalization interventions in 2017/18 were aged 20 or under.
However, some 95 percent of all referrals to Prevent did not result in any action by the Channel program that provides support to people who might be vulnerable to radicalization, meaning the vast majority of Prevent referrals were false alarms.
Another issue with the scheme is its alleged over-representation of threats emanating from the Muslims in the UK. Muslims make up only 5 percent of the population yet concerns related to the community as part of the Prevent make up 44 percent of all referrals. That is seen by some as reflecting a gross over-representation indicative of the inherent bias and deliberate targeting of Muslim communities by Prevent.
“In the UK, we have a panoply of offences that operate in the pre-criminal space. The idea that future ‘terrorists’ have been somehow dissuaded through Prevent, particularly when the numbers do not correlate to actual violent offenders, is ridiculous at best,” said Asim Qureshi, Research Director for CAGE.
“What is always missing from these discussions is the long-term impact of false referrals. With a large portion stemming from the education sector, the fundamental relationship between student and teacher is changed forever – the student will forever feel a suspect.
“We could speak of one false referral being one too many, but the reality is that we are already speaking about this in the thousands, where a 95% inaccuracy rate is harming the future of our children,” Qureshi added.
Critics of Prevent include David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, and the Commons home affairs select committee, which called for the “toxic brand” of Prevent to be abandoned in favor of a more inclusive “Engage” title, and for much clearer guidelines and training on how it is implemented in schools and universities.
“There is a strong feeling in Muslim communities that I visit that Prevent is if not a spying program then at least a program that is targeted on them,” Anderson said.
The Muslim Council of Britain has also announced that it will set up its own program next year aiming to tackle the issue of support for terrorist groups like Daesh within Muslim communities in the country.
Others, including Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary from the opposition Labour Party, and teaching and student unions, have called for a reform or even abandonment of the Prevent.
“The whole scheme is simply unworkable,” Abbott said this week, adding, “Even with widespread cooperation the number of children under 10 who have been referred to the police under the Prevent strategy is over 400 in the last four years.
“Families are terrified their kids will be taken from them, guilty only of playing school playground games, play acting or childish bragging. Yet according to the police, 80% of all referrals are not acted on,” added Abbott.
Source: Press TV
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