Alex Kleiderman & Tom Symonds
BBC News
Protesters and counter-protesters met during demonstrations
Protests over the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers have been held across the UK.
Demonstrators gathered in parts of England including Bristol, Liverpool and London, as well as in Mold in Wales, Perth in Scotland and County Antrim in Northern Ireland.
Police stepped in to keep opposing groups separated in many places where anti-racism campaigners mounted counter-demonstrations.
It comes after a High Court ruling this week blocked a hotel in Epping, in Essex, from accommodating asylum seekers and some local authorities in England 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.
Bristol City Council has said it has no plans to challenge the government in using 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.
More than 400 people had turned out for a march called by UKIP calling for migrants to be deported. 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”.
More than 200 people took part in a counter-protest across the street, unfurling 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 an investigation into its legal planning status.
Police stepped in to keep protesters and counter-protesters apart in Bristol
Police forces are deploying extra officers over the weekend and using special powers enabling them to require people to move away from the area.
Surrey Police made three arrests at a protest outside the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel – two for breach of the peace and one for breaching the conditions of a community protection notice.
Officers kept a group of approximately 100 people gathered outside the hotel, which is used to house asylum seekers, separated from around 30 counter-protesters carrying anti-racism signs.
More protests are planned in parts of the UK on Sunday.
Rival groups of protesters also faced each other in Liverpool, where police made 11 arrests
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.
Crowds had gathered to protest outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex last month after an asylum seeker living in the hotel was arrested and later charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the town.
The High Court ruling on Tuesday saw Epping Forest District Council granted a temporary injunction to stop people being placed at the hotel. It argued that the hotel had breached local planning controls by changing its use and that, in turn, had led to events that were a public safety risk.
The government is seeking the right to appeal against the ruling.
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 that it needed to happen in “a properly managed way”.
Figures released by the government on Thursday showed that the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels had reached 32,059 – an 8% increase in the year since Labour came to power but down on the 2023 peak.
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