Immigration lawyers say they fear being attacked after their workplaces have been on an inventory of offices circulated on social media.
They advised the BBC that they had been suggested by police to earn a living from home, board up workplace home windows and set up fireproof letterboxes.
But one mentioned she wouldn’t be cowed by the threats, saying: “No-one goes to intimidate me.”
The checklist was initially printed on the Telegram messaging app together with the phrase “no more immigration” and different anti-migration sentiment, and has been shared hundreds of instances.
The Telegram group was created final week, hours after the Southport assault, and grew to fifteen,000 members by Monday evening. The message has since been reposted many extra instances.
It follows dysfunction in lots of UK cities and cities over the past week, fuelled by a false hearsay unfold on-line that the Southport assault suspect was an asylum seeker.
One immigration lawyer on the checklist advised the BBC she had been repeatedly threatened and has needed to take her web site down and cancel all her face-face appointments.
She mentioned: “On Monday I started getting the messages: ‘You’re on a hitlist.’
“I’m a migrant. I’ve come here and tried to integrate; I’ve built my business and raised my family.
“People have been calling up my office to threaten and insult me. I’m just trying to do my job.
“I’ve fought injustice all my life – no-one is going to intimidate me.”
Another mentioned he had been reassured by the police response, however had eliminated employees particulars from his web site and boarded up workplace home windows.
“It’s surreal, nothing like this has ever happened before, we don’t even cover asylum seekers,” he mentioned.
“There’s some really stupid people out there, making leaps of logic from what happened in Southport to immigration advisers.”
One lawyer within the North East mentioned he had been pressured to shut his workplace.
“I am worried. I’m not angry,” he mentioned. “I am not the enemy. They have a right to protest but I would request for them to do it in a peaceful way.”
The Law Society has been supporting the solicitors named on the checklist.
“They are worried about themselves, their staff and also their clients – who are under threat because they [lawyers] are seeing and speaking to them in asylum hotels,” its president Nick Emmerson said.
“There is a real and specific threat to named firms with their addresses being circulated on social media.”
“It’s a very difficult moment, large numbers of firms are affected and it’s after quite a few years where immigration lawyers have been attacked for doing their jobs.”
He mentioned it was reassuring that each lawyer reported being supported by police however added “there isn’t much we can really advise except don’t go to work and don’t meet clients. But how long are we meant to advise people to do that?”
Police sources say almost 6,000 public order officers are mobilised to answer dysfunction within the coming days, with not less than 30 potential gatherings deliberate for Wednesday.
The Met police mentioned it “knew of events planned by hateful and divisive groups across the capital tomorrow” and would use each energy, tactic and gear out there to stop additional scenes of dysfunction.
