Family of seven still search for peace after five years of race hate

Eight-year-old Khalid Mohamed was helping his parents move into their new home when some older boys on bikes started chasing his family and shouting racist abuse.

As the bewildered Somali family tried to settle into their new house in north London, adult neighbours joined in the heckling. "Fuck off Pakis. We don't want you here," they yelled. "We will burn the house down."

Since that day five years ago, the Mohamed family - who fled war-torn Mogadishu before Khalid was born - has barely gone 48 hours without enduring abuse. Stones are thrown at their house at night; lit cigarettes pushed through their letterbox. Khalid's father, Abdalla, 46, has been grabbed around the throat in front of his severely disabled daughter and terrified wife. His car has been vandalised on three occasions. His wife, Asha, is called a "baldy Paki" because she wears a scarf.

Two men were arrested on separate occasions, one of whom was found to be carrying a knife. Both were released without charge and continue to live close by.

The family lives trapped inside, fearfully awaiting the next attack and convinced that one day their tormentors will fulfil their promise to torch their home. The five children, the youngest of whom is seven, cannot even play in the garden.

As his parents can speak little English Khalid, now 13, has grown used to being called out of class at school so that he can telephone the police to report the latest attack. "We are petrified. We don't sleep at night because we are scared something is going to happen. It happens on a daily basis and all night. My mum cries every day. She believes them when they say they are going to burn down the house. They look like they could do it," he explained.

Today, the sombre-faced youngster will speak at a conference to highlight an alarming rise in hate crimes across Europe and the launch of Coalition Europe, a new human rights network. Alongside an impressive array of leading politicians and campaigners from 13 different nations gathered at the House of Commons, the nervous, slightly built boy will talk of the terror and abuse his family has endured.

In Britain, 48,000 racist incidents are reported to the police each year - almost 14,000 in the London area alone - and the figures are rising steadily. The rest of Europe has seen an even more dramatic rise, even though they do not record cases as stringently as Britain has since the Stephen Lawrence inquiry.

Suresh Grover, of The Monitoring Group, which supports victims of racism, said: "These violent acts range from desecrations, damage to property and physical assaults and murder. The racist killing of Dr Nithesh Kumar in St Petersburg last September was a shocking reminder of the growth of racial violence aimed at any 'dark skinned' individuals living in Russia. The country has recorded 84 racist murders in the past four years, 54 in 2006 alone, with a 17 per cent rise in racist incidents to 537."

Similarly, the growth in hate crimes has been a major problem in Germany since unification in 1990. It is estimated that over 100 people have been killed by neo-Nazi groups since then. Last year the German government recorded 958 hate crimes, a 10 per cent rise. But campaigners believe that - as these countries do not have the same comprehensive recording procedure as Britain - most attacks go unreported.

Donatella Linguiti, the Italian undersecretary of state for equal rights, will join the prominent human rights lawyers Peter Herbert and Imran Khan and other figures from across Europe to call for a more stringent examination of the problem so that far more can be done to tackle it.

Mr Grover said: "Over the last few years the police have recorded an average of just over 45,000 racially motivated attacks annually, now up to 48,000. Community groups across Britain have witnessed an alarming growth of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism since 11 September. This unique pan-European initiative will demand action from all European governments and that they bury their inertia on this issue."

For Khalid and his family, the drive to combat racist abuse is painfully close to home. The attacks have become so frequent that Mr Mohamed has set up CCTV on his house to try to gather evidence as the police have repeatedly refused to prosecute. He has multiple locks and an alarm. His children all carry mobile telephones in case of attack.

At night he watches and waits for the groups of men who stand outside his house hurling rocks and abuse, terrifying his youngest children in particular.

"Even though my dad stays awake all night, there are five locks on the door. He just sits there waiting for something to happen," explained Khalid. The family of seven has begged the housing association to move them, but to no avail.

"We are seriously scared. We are always telling the police this is really serious but they don't treat it as serious. They treat it as if we are lying," said Khalid, who wants to be a mechanical engineer, but says he now has problems concentrating on school work and maintaining good grades.

"Since all this started, I don't get as much chance to learn. We are all so scared. We just want to move away. Dad pleaded with the housing association. He said we would all live in a one-bedroom flat but they said that would be illegal," he said.

Last night, London and Quadrant Housing Association said: "We confirm that Mr Mohamed has made a number of allegations of racial harassment against residents. We have investigated all these but neither we nor the police have been able to obtain sufficient evidence to support the allegations at present."

Independent