Photo credit: BBC
Protests over the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers have been held across the UK.
BBC reports that demonstrators gathered in various parts of England, like Bristol, Liverpool, London, Mold in Wales, Perth in Scotland, and County Antrim in Northern Ireland.
However, police stepped in to keep opposing groups separated in many places where anti-racism campaigners mounted counter-demonstrations.
It comes sequel to a High Court judgement this week that blocked a hotel in Epping from accommodating asylum seekers. Some local authorities said they were now considering legal challenges.
In Bristol, several hundred anti-racism protesters were held apart from other protesters in Castle Park by police in riot gear and on horseback for almost two hours, with some pushing at police lines in an attempt to get through. They outnumbered dozens of anti-migrant campaigners.
Meanwhile, Bristol City Council has said it has no plans to challenge the government’s use of hotels to house asylum seekers in the city.
Police in the city said a 37-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.
Merseyside Police said 11 people were arrested for various offences, including being drunk and disorderly, assault and affray, after a protest in Liverpool.
Over 400 people turned out for a march called by UKIP calling for migrants’ deportation. They were opposed by a few hundred people from Stand Up To Racism and the Merseyside Anti-Fascist Network.
Other protests took place in Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Wakefield, Newcastle, and Horley in Surrey. In Perth, about 150 protesters gathered outside the Radisson Blu hotel were holding signs with the slogan “get them out”.
But over 200 people took part in a counter-protest across the street. They unfurled a banner which read “no to racism” and “refugees welcome”.
About 300 people joined a protest in Mold to oppose a possible plan to provide accommodation for asylum seekers in flats above a retail unit in the town. They were met by a counter-protest of about 40 people.
In County Antrim, about 40 people gathered outside a hotel being used to house asylum seekers. Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council has started investigations into its legal planning status.
Police forces are deploying extra officers over the weekend and using special powers enabling them to require people to move away from the area.
More protests are planned in parts of the UK on Sunday.
Saturday’s demonstrations are the latest in a series of protests over using hotels to house asylum seekers that have taken place in recent weeks.
The UK is legally bound to find homes for asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while they wait for a decision to be made on their asylum claim.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said the government was committed to closing all asylum hotels, but it needed to happen in “a properly managed way”.
