Woman arrested over 'racially aggravated' comments online over death of Afghan refugee in Sheffield as MPs demand 'urgent answers' over Home Office accommodation

The 42-year-old woman, who is also from Sheffield, was taken into custody on Friday and questioned over malicious communications and racially aggravated public order offences.

South Yorkshire Police said the offences related to the tragic death of five-year-old Mohamed Munib Majeedi - who had fled Afghanistan with his family - on Wednesday at the Sheffield Metropolitan Hotel.

Detectives have now taken the opportunity to remind the public that hate speech online has "serious consequences".

Acting Detective Inspector Lee Corker said: “I would like to remind people that comments made online can have serious consequences.

“Hate speech or hate crimes will not be tolerated in person or online, and will be dealt with robustly by officers.

“Our social media channels are monitored, and whilst we encourage discussion, offensive comments may be investigated. Please consider the impact your words may have before you post.”

It follows calls for an urgent inquiry into the safety of the accommodation Afghan families are staying in.

Asylum seekers had been previously removed from the hotel because it was unfit for refugees to stay in, it has been claimed.

Labour frontbencher Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, and colleagues Clive Betts, Olivia Blake, Paul Blomfield and Gill Furniss have written to Home Secretary Priti Patel, calling for a “full, urgent, independent inquiry into the circumstances that led to Mohammed’s death, but also into the placement of vulnerable refugees in this accommodation”.

“We know that the Home Office placed some refugees there last August, in 2020, and then moved them following concerns about the suitability of that accommodation.

“So why vulnerable families from Afghanistan, involving children, were placed in this accommodation again this year is a very serious question that they have to urgently answer.”

It is understood previous concerns had been surrounding fire safety.

Sheffield City Council confirmed that the Home Office had ceased use of the hotel in November.

The Home Office did not deny the claims when approached for comment but said: “We are extremely saddened by the tragic death of a child at a hotel in Sheffield. The police are providing support to the family while the investigation continues and we are providing accommodation and support.

“We are absolutely committed to ensuring that Afghan refugees are appropriately accommodated and supported and we are working hard with local authorities to deliver this.”

Ms Haigh said the fact that all remaining families had been removed from the hotel “demonstrates that they know that is unsafe and unsuitable”.

And she added: “It’s just absolutely appalling that the family had fled unimaginable horror in Afghanistan, to come to this country seeking safe haven, find themselves placed in unsuitable accommodation, and now have to face this tragedy of equally unimaginable proportions.”

The Refugee Council has also called for a review of the accommodation offered to those fleeing the Taliban following the tragedy.

A spokesman for the Afghan Community Association in Sheffield said: “Whether it was a mistake or something, I don’t know, but what happened is not acceptable at all.”

Liberal Democrat peer and former leader of Sheffield City Council, Lord Scriven, said officials needed to “take a long look at themselves” over what had gone wrong.

He said: “These refugees are fleeing from some of the most horrendous and traumatic experiences one could ever begin to imagine. So why on earth the Home Office thinks it is acceptable to put them into a hotel that they’ve already withdrawn previous vulnerable people from, is jaw-dropping.

“The council should not have stayed quiet about this, but should have made it very clear on our soil, in Sheffield, as the first city of sanctuary, this wasn’t good enough.

“Senior officials and the Home Secretary need to take a long look at themselves in the mirror tonight and question their conscience as to why they feel it was acceptable.”

Witnesses said the boy’s father had worked in the British Embassy in Kabul.

He said the family came to the UK three or four weeks ago, landing at Birmingham Airport, then staying in Manchester during quarantine for Covid.

The family, including the parents and three boys and two girls, then moved to the hotel in Sheffield in the last week.