Britain’s crackdown on immigration and the Windrush scandal has led some Muslims to boycott vaccines and put their faith in Allah to protect them from coronavirus, a committee has been told.
Mohammed Razaq, the executive director of West of Scotland Regional Equality Council, said the UK government’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has fostered a mistrust of government among some minorities.
Razaq told the Scottish parliament’s Covid-19 committee: “It’s not just about previous governments.
“Even within the UK you have got discrimination, immigration issues, hate crime, the Windrush scandal and even now the new Nationality and Borders Bill that can take away your nationality without you being notified.”
He said mistrust in UK authorities had pushed some minorities to anti-vaccine faith leaders or prominent leaders in their native countries.
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“In most of Asia and Africa, people spend most of their time outside. They don’t sit in offices or their home . . . so the spread of the virus is not as much and people don’t take it as an important thing,” he said.
Confirmed coronavirus deaths are significantly lower in Asia and Africa than Europe and America, but epidemiologists say testing is limited in these continents so actual deaths are likely to be significantly higher.
Razaq also acknowledged that “faith-related issues” and the patriarchal hierarchy of some immigrant families can lead to vaccine hesitancy.
He said: “Certainly within Islam it is very clear that it is God who decides if you live or die. Some followers, particularly the elderly, will say ‘if it is already decided why take the vaccine?’
“Ethnic minorities also have larger families, so if the head of the family is an anti-vaxxer you will have a lot of people who will not take the vaccine, and as you go along the numbers become bigger and bigger.”
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Parveen Ishaq, manager at Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council, said some minorities tend to believe misinformation coming from their native countries.
“People would rather believe somebody they can relate to rather than the general message coming from NHS Scotland,” she said.
The Scottish government was also accused of pushing the Polish community towards international channels of disinformation by failing to properly translate public health guidance on vaccination.
Magda Czarnecka, the chief executive of Feniks, a support charity for central and eastern Europeans in Scotland, said “there was no real outreach to ethnic minorities from the government”.
She said: “There were missed opportunities [to address] all those anti-vaccine and conspiracy theories emerging in Scotland.
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“NHS Inform materials translated into Polish and other languages are not searchable as all the files are titled in English . . . so if you are searching in Polish for ‘vaccine in Scotland or Edinburgh’ it does not come up.”
She added: “The lack of trust in authorities and the system was exacerbated because there was no communication with the Polish community, so people felt that they were left by themselves and they had to make choices for themselves.”
Eman Hani, general manager of the Central Scotland Regional Equality Council, said historical and modern day oppression around the world was a factor in fostering “a lack of trust in NHS services or anything coming from an authority”.
She said: “That comes from the nature of where these people come from, either growing up under Communism or fleeing their countries because of war and oppression by their own governments.
“They see anything coming from government as ‘against them’ and [this] creates a hesitance and resistance to anything the government is telling you.”
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Hani said some minorities believe “myths and misconceptions” about the vaccine, that it is untested, that it contains a tracking chip or that the whole pandemic is a fantasy.
She urged trusted members of ethnic communities to step up and address these myths.
Paulina Trevena, research associate at Glasgow University’s migrant essential workers programme, said some vaccine hesitancy was economic rather than religious or cultural.
She said many Polish people work in low-paid, low-skilled, zero-hours contracts and cannot take time away from work to visit a vaccination centre, or risk time off if they have debilitating side effects.
María José Pavez Larrea, policy officer at Grampian Regional Equality Council, said “the risk of developing blood clots with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine”, fears of long-term side effects and infertility were other common fears.
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Many minorities insisted they did not need the vaccine because they had already had Covid. New strains such as Omicron have the ability to reinfect people.
Minorities also faced the same issues as the general public of vaccine appointment letters going missing or being sent to the wrong address.
A spokesman for the Scottish government said: “Vaccination uptake has exceeded our expectations but we are always keen to explore ways to increase the vaccination rate and, as vaccination represents our best way out of the pandemic, we continue to urge anyone who has not yet come forward to do so.
“We are aware of lower uptake of vaccine in some communities and are addressing this by working alongside NHS Boards, third sector and community groups. All NHS Boards have dedicated inclusion plans within the vaccination programme, outlining how they will actively offer vaccination to people who may face barriers to uptake.
“Work to reach under-vaccinated communities includes offering vaccinations in places of worship, translating information into multiple languages and formats, grouped together on NHS Inform by language, including Polish. We also work closely with BEMIS, the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland.
“As we have done throughout the pandemic, we will continue to engage with ethnic minorities and review any issues around translation.”
The UK government was contacted for comment.