Number Of Britons Referred To State Program Over Far-Right Extremism Up 36% - Report

Rukhshan Mir (@rukhshanmir) Published December 13, 2018 | 06:36 PM

The number of Britons referred to UK's Prevent counter-terror program over far-right extremism concerns was up 36 percent in the year ending last March, a Home Office report out Thursday said.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2018) The number of Britons referred to UK's Prevent counter-terror program over far-right extremism concerns was up 36 percent in the year ending last March, a Home Office report out Thursday said.

Statistics show that a total of 7,318 people were enlisted to the program in England and Wales from April 2017 to March 2018 due to concerns that they were vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism.

"There was a 36% increase in the number of referrals for concerns related to right wing extremism in 2017/18 (1,312) when compared with 2016/17 (968), continuing the upward trend," the report reads.

Referrals for concerns related to Islamist extremism made up the biggest share.

There were 3,197 people flagged up over Islamism, down 14 percent from 3,704 the year before.

The remaining referrals were made over other types of extremism, including "mixed, unstable, or unclear ideology." The highest number of referrals (2,462) was made in the education sector, followed by police stations with 2,364 referrals.

The total number of referrals rose by 20 percent from the previous year. The authors of the report noted this reflected heightened awareness that followed five terror attacks in 2017 - four in London and one in Manchester.