Hundreds of demonstrators successfully prevented authorities from transporting asylum seekers from a London hotel to a docked barge called the Bibby Stockholm.
Police made arrests after intervening in the crowd that had gathered near a Best Western hotel in Peckham, where the asylum seekers were staying.
The standoff lasted for seven hours, finally ending at 3 pm when the coach intended for the asylum seekers left the area without them. Several police vans departed with detained protesters.
The Home Secretary, James Cleverly, condemned the protesters and said they “will not … deter us from doing what is right for the British public.”
However, the scenes illustrated the challenges the government may yet face when it comes to carrying out deportations to Rwanda.
On Thursday, May 2, it was revealed that the Home Office had decided to cancel its proposal to relocate asylum seekers from Margate to the Bibby Stockholm barge due to ongoing protests in the area.
Meanwhile, Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s outgoing First Minister, denounced the Home Office’s detention raids on asylum seekers and urged the UK government to scrap the policy.
Last week, at least eight asylum seekers residing at the Best Western hotel in London were informed that they would be relocated on Thursday morning to the Bibby Stockholm, located in Portland, Dorset.
The plan was to pick up additional passengers along the way. However, the coach transporting them was blocked by protesters when it stopped at a bus stop around 8 am.
Tensions escalated when police intervened around 12:30 pm, resulting in at least one person requiring medical attention after being knocked to the ground.
Among those scheduled for relocation were teenagers attending local colleges.
Some men at the hotel expressed concerns about the conditions aboard the Bibby Stockholm, particularly after an incident last year involving the death of an Albanian man named Leonard Farruku, which was suspected to be a suicide.
One said, “We are also concerned this is happening at the same time as the government’s Rwanda plans have gone through. But it’s encouraging to see this sort of support.”
Police Warn Protesters, Organizer Explains Motives
The Metropolitan Police’s deputy assistant commissioner, Ade Adelekan, said officers engaged with protesters at the scene and warned them they could be arrested.
One of the coordinators of the protest in Peckham, Kojo Kyerewaa, of Black Lives Matter, said, “Our friends who are at a Home Office hotel got a notification that they were going to be taken to the Bibby Stockholm today.”
“Because of the bonds and relationships they’ve got in the community, we were made aware of that and organized a discreet action … so that they would not be abducted and taken away.”
Kojo Kyerewaa
During a session of the Scottish Parliament’s First Minister’s questions in Edinburgh, Humza Yousaf expressed strong condemnation of what he called “inhumane” actions by the Home Office.
He criticized the detention of individuals for the purpose of forcibly deporting them to Rwanda, describing it as cruel and harmful to some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Yousaf’s comments came in response to a question posed by Karen Adams, referencing a report published on Sunday, April 28. The report highlighted the Home Office’s plans to commence detaining asylum seekers with the intention of carrying out forced deportations to Rwanda.
“At times like this, we all have an obligation to just step back. Actually think about what’s going on here, in a country, the UK, where those who flee persecution, war, or extreme poverty, come to our shores.”
Humza Yousaf
Figures released on Thursday, May 2, undermined Rishi Sunak’s claims that his Rwanda plan was working by putting off asylum seekers from trying to reach the UK.
The figures showed that 711 people arrived by boat on Wednesday, more than half of the number who crossed during the whole of May last year, and a record for a single day since September 2023.
READ ALSO: Himang Ankobrah Welcomes New Community Mining Scheme
