From the Public and Commercial Services Union website LINK
The 'Go home' billboard messages being driven around six London boroughs have been met with criticism within the coalition government.
And some users on Twitter are reporting sightings using the hashtag #racistvan and deliberately wasting the Home Office's time with bogus reports.
We wrote to the department's permanent secretary Mark Sedwill on Thursday to say we were "appalled" that the Home Office had sanctioned the initiative.
PCS group secretary Mike Jones said in the letter: "This kind of campaign will only serve to cause more racial tension within our communities."
It's "deeply divisive", he added, and will create "tension and mistrust towards anyone who looks and sounds foreign".
"This is just a political advertising stunt that differs little from the Conservative Party election campaign messages.
"It is exactly the thing right wing racist and fascist organisations such as the BNP, EDL, EVF and others feed off" and use to "stir up racial tension and hatred in these very same London boroughs", Mike said.
We pointed out that, with a reported 500,000 backlog in asylum cases, the Home Office needs more permanent staff to deal with casework, not political stunts.
A controversial Home Office immigration
campaign is "political, deeply divisive and likely to stir up racial
hatred", PCS has told the department's most senior civil servant.
And some users on Twitter are reporting sightings using the hashtag #racistvan and deliberately wasting the Home Office's time with bogus reports.
We wrote to the department's permanent secretary Mark Sedwill on Thursday to say we were "appalled" that the Home Office had sanctioned the initiative.
PCS group secretary Mike Jones said in the letter: "This kind of campaign will only serve to cause more racial tension within our communities."
It's "deeply divisive", he added, and will create "tension and mistrust towards anyone who looks and sounds foreign".
"This is just a political advertising stunt that differs little from the Conservative Party election campaign messages.
"It is exactly the thing right wing racist and fascist organisations such as the BNP, EDL, EVF and others feed off" and use to "stir up racial tension and hatred in these very same London boroughs", Mike said.
We pointed out that, with a reported 500,000 backlog in asylum cases, the Home Office needs more permanent staff to deal with casework, not political stunts.
