'Go Home' Govt Van Poster Was 'Misleading'

A campaign by the Home Office urging illegal immigrants to "go home" has been banned for using misleading arrest statistics.

However the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) cleared it over complaints that it was offensive and irresponsible.

The campaign involved two vans driving through six London boroughs between July 22 and July 28 with a poster saying: "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest."

It drew 224 complaints to the ASA, including some from groups representing migrants in the UK, legal academics and the Labour peer Lord Lipsey.

The poster featured a close-up image of someone holding a pair of handcuffs and wearing a uniform with a "Home Office" badge.

It also pictured a box containing green text in the style of an official stamp stating "106 arrests last week in your area".

Small print at the bottom of the poster said the arrest figures were from the period June 30 to July 6 and covered Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Hounslow.

Several complainants challenged whether the claim "106 arrests last week in your area" was misleading and could be substantiated, while others said the small print was not legible on a moving vehicle.

The ASA said those who saw the poster would understand the claim "106 arrests last week in your area" to mean that during the previous week 106 people in the area in which they saw the poster had been arrested under suspicion of being in the UK illegally.

Liberty sent out their own van in response to the posters

It said: "Because the data on which the claim was based related to a significant part of London north of the Thames rather than to the specific areas in which the poster was displayed, and because the data did not relate to the week prior to the campaign, we concluded the claim was misleading and had not been substantiated.

"We told the Home Office to ensure that in future they held adequate substantiation for their advertising claims and that qualifications were presented clearly.

"The ad must not appear again in its current form."

However it was decided the message was "in no way racist" despite the phrase "go home" being reminiscent of slogans used in the past to attack immigrants to the UK.

"We recognised that the poster, and the phrase "go home" in particular, were likely to be distasteful to some in the context of an ad addressed to illegal immigrants, irrespective of the overall message conveyed, and we recognised that wording less likely to produce that response, such as "return home" could have been used.

"However, we concluded that the poster was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or distress."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We are pleased the ASA have concluded that our pilot was neither offensive nor irresponsible.

"In respect of the ASA's other findings, we can confirm that the poster will not be used again in its current format."

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