The British government on Monday condemned the “intimidating and thuggish behavior” of anti-immigrant demonstrators who converged on a port in southern England where migrants were brought ashore after crossing the English Channel.
Hundreds of protesters, many dressed in dark clothing and wearing masks, faced off with police in Portsmouth late Sunday in an attempt to prevent lifeboats from bringing the migrants to land. They then tried to block buses carrying the new arrivals to a processing facility for asylum seekers.
“The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder,” the government said in a statement.
The Portsmouth protest came a day after hundreds of masked anti-immigration protesters blocked roads leading to Britain’s busiest ferry port of Dover on Saturday, clogging traffic and disrupting travelers as well as cargo vehicles heading for France.
Both groups appeared to be led by Daniel Thomas, an ally of veteran far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.
Successive U.K. governments have struggled to stop people — more than 40,000 last year — making the dangerous journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The issue has been depicted as a crisis by politicians including Nigel Farage of the hard-right party Reform UK, and has been used as a rallying point by anti-immigration activists. --->READ MORE HERE
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Hundreds of demonstrators descended on Portsmouth after migrants heading towards the Hampshire coast on a small boat were intercepted and brought ashore.
Around 140 migrants are believed to have disembarked near Eastney in Portsmouth, and will be taken to Manston immigration centre in Kent for processing.
Demonstrators blocked roads for hours on Sunday and vowed to stay all night in the second major anti-migrant protest of the weekend. Video footage showed protesters facing up to police and shouting “stop the boats” on Sunday evening.
Treasury minister Emma Reynolds condemned the demonstration, saying it had “crossed the line” of peaceful protest.
“As a politician, I absolutely support the right to peaceful protest,” she told Sky News. “But this has crossed the line. This is thuggish and intimidating behaviour.”
Far-right agitator Daniel Thomas, an associate of Tommy Robinson, was live-streaming from a beach in Eastney and encouraged his supporters: “Roads are all blocked, they are never going to be able to leave here.”
He added: “It was only yesterday (at the protests in Dover) when we warned them that we will not accept this any more, and that this is no longer an option to tell us that the boat numbers are down.”
Men blocked road access to the Port of Dover on Saturday, in scenes which have been condemned by politicians.
Many of those at Portsmouth were dressed in all black and wore face masks, similar to those who attended the Dover rally.
Police asked people to avoid the area in Portsmouth and said a dispersal order was in place until Monday evening.
The protest in put pressure on the emergency services and required support from forces across the country, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) said.
Donna Jones said the Government needed to act to counter changing patterns from people traffickers shifting away from crossings at the Strait of Dover.
The Conservative PCC said: “Last night we had mutual aid, public order police officers sent from police forces across the country including the Metropolitan Police Service.
“We also had a number of our own police officers, obviously, from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Constabulary trying to take back control of the roads, forming a line and holding a few hundred protesters back. --->READ MORE HERE
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