More
than 500 anti-asylum seeker protesters have clashed with police after
140 migrants were rescued from a mega-dinghy and brought ashore in
Portsmouth.
Less than 48 hours after a
'stop the boats' demonstration in Dover, protesters gathered near
Eastney Beach in Hampshire last night chanting 'stop the boats' and
'enough is enough'.
Government minister
Emma Reynolds today called the 500 protesters 'thuggish and
intimidating' after the second major anti-migrant protest in two days.
Hundreds
of protestors clashed with police near Eastney beach in Portsmouth last
night after a dinghy carrying 140 asylum seekers was escorted to the
shore
Crowds were heard shouting 'stop the boats' and 'enough is enough'
Riot police were deployed to the scene, though none of the protesters are thought to have been arrested
Eastney is just four miles
from the Port of Portsmouth and the HM Naval Base, home to six Royal
Navy destroyers and its two flagship aircraft carriers, HMS Queen
Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
In protest footage shared on social media, a riot officer appeared to be pushed from his motorbike as demonstrators, many wearing caps and hoods, shouted: 'Shame on you.'
Further
clips showed officers carrying shields ordering the crowd to 'get back'
before pushing some protesters away from a nearby police van.
The
demonstrators remained in the area until almost midnight amid chaotic
scenes and multiple clashes with officers near the waterfront.
The
protest is thought to have been spearheaded by hard-Right influencer
Daniel Thomas, the Tommy Robinson associate whose Patriot Platform group
organised a mass demonstration in Dover on Saturday.
Livestreaming the protest Thomas – also known as Danny Tommo – said: 'It was only yesterday (in Dover) when we warned them that we will not accept this any more, and that it is no longer an option to tell us the boat numbers are down.
'This isn't about the numbers being down. This is about understanding that this has to come to an end now.'
The
demonstration went on until 3am on Monday, when police threatened to
arrest them after a dispersal order for the area was put in place.
Crowds stayed in the area until as late as midnight on Sunday
However,
unlike in Dover, the hundreds of protesters this time chose not to wear
masks or balaclavas, although many were dressed in black.
The dinghy arrived on British shores after setting
off from the Bay of the Seine, Normandy. After shadowing for ten hours,
the French coastguard had apparently deemed it unsafe to stop the boat
on water during what is thought to have been one of the longest Channel
crossings ever.
HM Coastguard sent two
lifeboats, a coastguard helicopter, a fixed-wing aircraft and rescue
teams to ensure the asylum seekers reached the British shore safely.
And
in others, riot officers appear to be sprayed with water from
super-soakers as dozens watching on record them on their phones.
Earlier in the day, protestors shared videos of them entering the water in
Portsmouth. Thomas, who livestreamed the event on YouTube, was heard
urging his supporters to 'get in your cars and get down here' as he
stood waist-deep in the sea.
Separate footage meanwhile appeared to show a woman delivering supplies to protesters via canoe.
The
authorities in France have said that it is unusual for a migrant boat
to depart from the Bay of the Seine, located some 170 miles from the
usual launches in Calais.
A Maritime
and Coastguard Agency spokesman said: 'In response to a report on
September 6 of a small boat heading towards the Hampshire coast, HM Coastguard sent lifeboats, an HM Coastguard helicopter, an HM Coastguard aeroplane and HM Coastguard Rescue Teams.
'Border Force, Border Security Command, Hampshire Police and South Central Ambulance Service were also sent.'
Clips posted online later showed people being ushered off lifeboats to shore, where they were met by several buses.
Cllr
George Madgwick, leader of Reform UK in Hampshire, wrote in a post on X
that 'over 100 migrant men' had arrived in Portsmouth.
Reform
UK leader Nigel Farage meanwhile posted: 'A boat launched from Baie de
Seine, 170 miles from Calais, arrived on the beaches of Hampshire for the very first time. This is a joke. Only Reform will send the boats back.'
Earlier in the day protesters had gathered on the beach when the migrants arrived on a British coastguard ship
Some even entered the water and told people to stop the coaches leaving, leading to police imposing a dispersal order
Migrants
scramble on board a dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel
to Britain (A boat in Gravelines, Calais, is pictured, in a separate
incident)
Hampshire
and the Isle of Wight's police and crime commissioner Donna Jones said
officers from other forces had to come to help – and fears that this 'is
just the start' of protests.
She said: 'Last
night we had mutual aid, public order police officers sent from police
forces across the country including the Metropolitan Police Service.
'We
also had a number of our own police officers, obviously, from Hampshire
and the Isle of Wight Constabulary trying to take back control of the
roads, forming a line and holding a few hundred protesters back.
'This is just the start, if this continues, these numbers will grow from the protesters.
'They were making their point that they don't want Portsmouth to become a destination'.
She
said it will be a 'significant issue' for the Government if people
traffickers shift their destinations across England's south coast.
The
crossing to Portsmouth came in the same week Prime Minister Andy
Burnham and French President Emmanuel Macron met to discuss how to
'scale up' efforts to reduce small boat crossings.
Only last month, a small boat carrying record numbers of migrants – believed to be more than 230 – successfully crossed the English Channel.
And earlier this week hundreds of anti-migrant protesters donning balaclavas brought the Port of Dover to a standstill.
Demonstrators
were heard chanting 'stop the boats' while blocking many of the town's
roads. Some of those in attendance claimed links to Patriot Platform, a
hard-Right organisation made up of anti-migrant groups from around the
country.
Kent Police were thought to
have been 'unaware' that the protest was taking place, leaving them
'thin on the ground' as hundreds marched the streets of the town.
Mike Tapp, the Labour
MP for Dover and Deal and former Home Office minister, said: 'I will be
looking urgently on Monday to ask questions around why we didn't know
about this, because we do tend to know when protests are coming to the
area, and they tend to be peaceful, and laws aren't broken, and
obviously the police have the resources to manage that.
'But
in this instance, it would appear that the police didn't know about it,
and the resources were pretty thin on the ground, to be quite honest
from what I saw. We know that laws were broken because they were blocking the roads and wearing face coverings.'
In response, Kent Police told the Daily Mail it was a 'spontaneous event and was policed accordingly'.
Police made no arrests and escorted the protesters to Dover Priory train station at around midday.
At
least 100 people were seen boarding a train to Ramsgate, with some
since spotted in nearby Sandwich where 'police are in attendance'.
Patriot Platform was founded earlier this year by Daniel Thomas, a convicted kidnapper and associate of Tommy Robinson.
The protesters blocked roads leading to the port, sparking warnings of delays for holidaymakers
Sharing clips of the protest in Dover to his social media, Thomas wrote: 'It's time. Protect Our Country! And more importantly, our women and children! This is our warning.'
A government spokesman said: 'We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we are seeing tonight.
'The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder.
'We thank the emergency services who are working to safely manage this situation.'
Hampshire
Constabulary said: 'This evening, we have been working alongside and
assisting our partners from Border Force, Maritime & Coastguard
Agency and Portsmouth City Council at Eastney Marina following the
arrival of a boat crossing the channel.
'We have officers in the
area to ensure the prevention of any disorder. We ask that people
please avoid the area. A dispersal order is in place until tomorrow
evening. Anyone who refuses to comply with the direction to leave the
area is liable for arrest.
'We can also
confirm that Border Force has advised us that Individuals will be
transported outside of Hampshire for processing in the normal way after
they have been safely disembarked.'
