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The UK government branded hundreds of demonstrators as “thuggish” after they blocked roads in an attempt to prevent asylum seekers leaving Portsmouth on Sunday.
The protest came after around 140 migrants arrived by small boat, as tensions over Channel crossings continue to mount.
“We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we saw in Portsmouth last night,” a spokesperson for the UK’s Home Office, said in a statement.
“The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy but it must never cross a line into disorder.”
Footage showed demonstrators, many dressed in black with their faces covered, confronting police officers holding riot shields as they formed a cordon around buses carrying the migrants to a processing centre.
Officials said the transfer was ultimately completed successfully.
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones told the BBC it was a “wake up call” for the UK government.
Jones said that “people have a right to peaceful protest” and that was “largely” the case last night but “there were crimes committed and they will now be investigated and I would not be surprised if there are arrests that come off the back of the footage that was captured as evidence”.
The Conservative MP said “hundreds” were acting lawfully and warned it was a “wake-up call to the government… that the British people are fed up with the lack of control of our borders”.
Sunday’s protest followed a similar demonstration on Saturday, when masked crowds blocked access to the Port of Dover.
French authorities said the vessel carrying the 140 migrants had departed from the Baie de Seine in Normandy — an unusually long and riskier route compared with the boats that typically depart from closer to Calais and land near Dover.
Arrivals in the county of Hampshire, where Portsmouth is located, remain extremely rare.
Another local Conservative MP Joe Robertson called the development “extremely concerning,” questioning whether smugglers were opening new routes for larger vessels.
The unrest comes despite recent data suggesting crossings are slowing. The Home Office said Channel arrivals in August fell to their lowest level since records began in 2018, with migrant numbers at their lowest since 2020.
The average number of passengers per boat has been rising in recent months. Some 16,513 migrants have crossed the Channel by small boat so far this year.
It is a small fraction of overall arrivals in Britain which total over 800,000 – most of which come through legal routes on student or work visas.
The issue continues to fuel support for the Reform UK party, underscoring how migration remains one of the most volatile political issues across Europe.
Additional sources • AFP, AP
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