Multiple cities in Britain witnessed a new wave of clashes on Saturday, August 2, during anti-immigration protests, amid escalating tensions between anti-immigration supporters and refugee rights advocates. Police announced several arrests.
In Manchester in the northwest, hundreds of demonstrators advocating for what they call “mass repatriation” gathered alongside anti-racism activists, coinciding with a march organized by the far-right party “Britain First.”
A similar demonstration took place in London, where protesters headed to a hotel in the city center that houses asylum seekers, a scene that has become recurrent in recent weeks and has previously seen clashes with police.
According to a reporter from Agence France-Presse present at the scene in Manchester, limited confrontations occurred between the two sides at the start of the march before police intervened to separate the demonstrators.
One participant in the protest, Brendan O’Reilly, 66, stated that “the march aims to call for the deportation of migrants to their home countries.” He added, “Our hotels are full of migrants while our homeless citizens sleep in the streets and beg for food. These people shouldn’t be allowed in at all.”
In London, police reported similar clashes outside a hotel in the Barbican area before intervening. They later confirmed the arrest of nine individuals, seven of whom were charged with public disorder offenses.
Britain has seen a rise in anti-immigration demonstrations in recent weeks, particularly in the Epping area of East London, which has been the site of several similar incidents recently.
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