The wake of the coronavirus pandemic has seen a sharp increase in racist abuse directed towards Asian communities in Britain, according to figures obtained by HuffPost UK.
Data collected through freedom of information requests reveals that the British Transport Police (BTP) and the Metropolitan Police have reported a significant rise in racially-aggravated assaults, harassment, and robberies against Southeast and East Asians.
In February, the Metropolitan Police recorded 64 race hate crimes in London, marking a substantial increase from the 20 incidents in January and representing the highest number since 2018.
In the first three months of 2020, the British Transport Police registered 42 race hate crimes, even with reduced transportation usage due to government advice. This figure is more than 400% higher than the levels reported in the previous year when only nine such incidents were documented.
