Blitz Bureau
PROTESTS over the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers have been held across the UK, reported BBC.
Protesters assembled in parts of England including Bristol, Liverpool and London, as well as in Mold in Wales and Perth in Scotland.
There have been no reports of serious trouble though police have had to step in to keep opposing groups separated, in places where anti-racism campaigners mounted counter-demonstrations. It comes after a High Court ruling this week blocked a hotel at Epping, in Essex, from accommodating asylum seekers and some local authorities saying they were now considering legal challenges.
In Bristol several hundred anti-racism protesters were held apart from their opponents 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. In Liverpool, marchers called by UKIP called for migrants to be deported. They were opposed by a few hundred people from Stand Up To Racism, and the Merseyside Anti-Fascist Network.
Protests also took place in Exeter, Tamworth, Cannock, Nuneaton, Wakefield, Newcastle and Horley in Surrey. In Scotland, which is not affected by the latest High Court ruling, about 150 protesters gathered in Perth outside of the Radisson Blu hotel on the city’s Leonard Street, chanting and holding signs including the slogan “get them out”.
Meanwhile, more than 200 people took part in a counter protest across the street, unfurling a banner which read “no to racism” and “refugees welcome”.
