The Evening Gazette has been inudated with letters after it spoke out on racism – and urged readers to do the same.

Editor Steve Dyson said there has been a tremendous response to the paper’s Speak Out Against Racism initiative, launched after the treatment of asylum seekers on Teesside was thrown into the national spotlight by an article in The Guardian newspaper.

Written by a businesswoman from Kenya, who orginally came to Britain for her safety, the article told how she had faced ill-treatment and abuse after being ‘dispersed’ to Middlesbrough from London.

Her experiences included people refusing to sit next to her on the bus, being punched and spat at, having stones thrown at her and being yelled at and taunted.

Reacting quickly to the article, the Evening Gazette checked the source of the story before deciding to re-run it with a front-page comment calling for readers to “stand up and be counted” and write in with their views.

Steve said: “The response has been amazing – we’ve had enough letters to fill the letters page for several weeks.

“Our readers are appalled that this kind of thing is happening. We have a broadsheet page of letters every day and at the moment we are filling half a page a day with the letters on this issue.

“We have also had one or two letters from bigots which of course we haven’t published – two were anonymous and the other one has been passed on to the relevant authorities – everyone knows there is a racist minority out there.”

Editor Steve also took his right to reply in The Guardian, which published a letter from him about the “other face of Teesside”.

Steve said: “What concerned me was the poor image of Middlesbrough that the article put out. I was keen to show the world that others feel differently.”

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