Hundreds of demonstrators blocked an attempt to collect asylum seekers from a London hotel and take them to a barge in Bibby Stockholm.
He was arrested when police burst into a crowd blocking a road near the Best Western Hotel in Peckham. It was only at 3:00 p.m., seven hours after arriving, that buses dispatched for asylum seekers were able to leave the area without any asylum seekers on board, and the demonstrators who had been detained A number of police vans carrying participants were also able to leave. .
“A total of 45 people were arrested and remanded in police custody for offenses including obstructing a highway, obstructing police operations and assaulting police officers,” Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Ade Adelekan said.
Home Secretary James Cleverley condemned the protesters, saying: “They will not prevent us from doing what is right for the British people.” However, these scenes illustrated the challenges the government may face in the future regarding forced returns to Rwanda.
It was revealed on Thursday that the Home Office had abandoned plans to transfer asylum seekers to Bibi in Stockholm following protests in Margate.
Meanwhile, outgoing Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf condemned the Home Office’s “inhumane” and “cruel” raids on asylum seekers and called on the UK government to abolish the policy.
At least eight asylum seekers living in the Best Western were rounded up a week ago on Thursday morning and told they would be transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, which is docked in Portland, Dorset. The bus was scheduled to collect other passengers along the way, but after arriving at the bus stop around 8 a.m., it was surrounded by demonstrators who blocked the bus from entering.
At least one person was tackled to the ground and treated after police arrived around 12:30 p.m.
Those scheduled to be removed are said to include teenagers attending universities in the area. Several men staying at the hotel said they were worried about the future of Bibby Stockholm, where an Albanian man named Leonard Falk died last year in a suspected suicide.
One person said: “We are also concerned that this is happening at the same time as the Rwandan government’s plans are being completed. But it is reassuring to have support like this.”
Mr Adelekan said officers engaged demonstrators at the scene and warned them they could be arrested.
In Edinburgh, Prime Minister Yousaf told MSPs during Prime Minister’s Questions: Detaining people forcibly taking them to Rwanda is cruel and punishes the most vulnerable in our society. ”
Mr Yousaf was asked by SNP MSP Karen Adams about Sunday’s Guardian newspaper report that the Home Office would begin detaining asylum seekers for deportation to Rwanda.
he said: “At times like these we all have a duty to take a step back and think about what is actually happening in the UK, a country where people come to this country fleeing persecution, war and extreme poverty. please look.”
Figures released on Thursday undermined Rishi Sunak’s claims that the Rwanda plan is working by delaying asylum seekers reaching the UK. They showed that 711 people arrived by boat on Wednesday. This is more than half the number of people who crossed in all of May last year, and a record for a single day since September.
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Kojo Kyerewua from Black Lives Matter, one of the protest coordinators in Peckham, said: “Our friends in the Home Office hotel have been informed that they will be taken to Bibby Stockholm today.” Told.
He said they were given a week’s notice and that “because of the bonds and relationships they have built in the community, we were aware of that and took careful steps to ensure they were not abducted and taken away.” “I organized it,” he said.
Ms Kyerewua said the protest was inspired by: Something similar happened in Margate last week.a coach was prevented from loading 22 asylum seekers onto a barge.
“We know that residents don’t want to leave, and we know that Bibby Stockholm is a dangerous place to lock someone up. It’s unsanitary and one person took their own life there. “There were also multiple suicide attempts by people who were told they would die and go to Bibby Stockholm,” he said.
It appears to be the first action of this kind in London since 2022, when protesters gathered for hours to block a van transporting a man arrested on immigration charges.
Some of those organizing the action were associated with Black Lives Matter and the Southwark and Lambeth Anti-Assault Network, but are understood to be friends of the community, including someone who taught English to asylum seekers at university. Some people had been.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This action is coercive and offensive. As part of our commitment to significantly reduce hotel occupancy, asylum seekers will be offered alternative accommodation to reduce the burden on taxpayers. has been moved to accommodation.
“We are returning 150 hotels to local communities and working closely with accommodation providers to manage exit procedures in a way that minimizes the impact on local authorities and asylum seekers.”
