Muslim family sent O2 sim cards addressed to 'Mr GetOut ofEngland' and 'Mr Isis Terroriste'

Hate mail: The envelopes were sent to a family in Wembley
BBC Victoria Derbyshire
Fiona Simpson15 May 2018

O2 have apologised after Sim cards addressed to “Mr GetOut ofEngland” and “Mr Isis Terroriste” were sent to a British-Iraqi family.

The company said the cards were ordered by an unknown third party last August but the Muslim family, from Wembley, assumed they were junk mail and have only just opened the envelopes.

They told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Programme they were “saddened” by the hate mail.

“"It's even sadder to think that such hate speech has become normalised despite living in such a uniquely multicultural and diverse city like London,” they added.

A family friend Sura Jawad told the programme she was “horrified” by the letters.

She added: “It's horrible to think that there are people who have so much hatred in them that they set out to deliberately make others feel isolated and unwelcome or who take comments like these light-heartedly.”

O2 said the postage and printing of Sim cards was managed by a third party partner.

A spokesman said: “We have a rigorous data cleansing process in place to prevent any of our free products being sent to addresses with obscenities or offensive names and so this is a rare occurrence.

“We are shocked by the letters that have been received and apologise to the family involved. If they decide to report this case, we will work closely with the police as part of their investigation.”

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