Voice ESEA

Our mission

We want to eliminate racial discrimination against East and South East Asians (ESEAs) by educating about, and amplifying voices of ESEAs within the community. Our aim is for everyone to feel safe, respected and proud.

Our origins

After witnessing the rise in hate crimes against ESEAs around the world as a result of COVID-19-fuelled prejudice, a group of friends decided to take a stand. Hence, Voice ESEA was born.

Our petition

We launched a petition to the UK Government and Parliament. We gathered over 22,000 signatures and obtained a Government response.

The petition aimed to raise awareness of the rise in hate crimes against ESEAs, as well as push the Government in considering resourcing for victim support and non-profit groups campaigning against racism.

Our police data report

Voice ESEA’s Data Team worked with volunteers in identifying and distilling useful information to assist Voice ESEA with its aims of raising awareness and understanding the scope of anti-ESEA discrimination in the UK. As part of this, Voice ESEA issued Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests to over 40 police bodies across the UK to determine the rates of police-reported hate crime against ESEAs in 2019 and 2020 in different regions.