EPPING: Hundreds of protesters gathered again Sunday outside a hotel in southern England at the focus of a legal battle over migrants, calling for foreign criminals to be deported.
The Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast London, became a flashpoint for protests in July after an asylum seeker staying there was charged with sexual assault for attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. The man charged has denied the allegation.
The demonstrations have since spread to other parts of Britain, at times turning violent.
The latest protests, at Epping and elsewhere in England, come two days after an appeal court overturned a lower court ruling that had temporarily blocked the use of the Bell Hotel to house asylum-seekers.
On Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered outside the hotel again, calling for the removal of asylum seekers housed there.
“Send them home, please protect me,” read one T-shirt worn by a young girl. A boy held up a sign saying “Deport foreign criminals.”
Several protesters waved Union Jacks and English flags.
Immigration policy
A bitter national debate over immigration policy has been raging in the UK, amid growing frustration over the continued arrival of small boats carrying migrants across the Channel from France.
The asylum-seeker charged with having tried to kiss a minor is a 38-year-old Ethiopian, who had arrived in England just days earlier after crossing the Channel in a small boat.
More than 50,000 migrants have made the dangerous Channel crossing from northern France since the Labour Party’s Keir Starmer became prime minister in July 2024.
Epping Council had initially secured a temporary court order banning the use of the Bell Hotel to house asylum seekers, but an appeals court in London overturned that ruling on Friday.
Also Sunday, around a hundred demonstrators gathered in support of asylum seekers outside a hotel in London’s Canary Wharf district.
Counter-protesters opposing immigration also attended the demonstration.
London’s Metropolitan Police later reported that “a small number of masked protesters... became aggressive toward members of the public and police,” adding that officers had arrested four people.
On Saturday, five people were also arrested after a group of masked men attempted to enter a hotel housing asylum seekers near Heathrow Airport.
As of the end of June, more than 32,000 asylum seekers were being accommodated in just over 200 hotels across the UK.
The Labour government has pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum accommodation by 2029, citing high costs.
Fresh protests outside UK hotels housing asylum seekers
https://arab.news/9x79e
Fresh protests outside UK hotels housing asylum seekers
- On Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered outside a hotel in London calling for the removal of asylum seekers housed there
- Frustration in the UK is growing over the continued arrival of small boats carrying migrants across the Channel from France
Russia committed ‘crimes against humanity’ in deporting Ukrainian children: UN inquiry
- The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases
- “Four years on, 80 percent of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said
GENEVA: Moscow’s deportation and forcible transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia amounts to a crime against humanity, a United Nations team of investigators said Tuesday.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had collected evidence leading it to conclude that “Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children.”
The probe was established by the UN Human Rights Council shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases.
“Four years on, 80 percent of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said.
Moscow has failed to establish a system facilitating returns, and has instead focused on long-term placement of the children with families or institutions in Russia, while relatives were not informed of their fate.
The commission confirmed its previous finding that Russian authorities had unlawfully deported and transferred children — as a war crime — “and that they have unjustifiably delayed their repatriation, which is also a war crime.”
These measures “were not guided by the best interests of the child,” and have violated international law, the probe found.
- Putin cited -
It said the involvement of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “including through his direct authority over entities that have steered and executed this policy, has been visible from the outset.”
In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a war crimes arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of “unlawfully deporting” Ukrainian children.
The issue is highly sensitive in Ukraine and remains central to negotiations for a potential peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
According to Kyiv, nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly removed since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russia insists it has moved some Ukrainian children from their homes or orphanages to protect them from hostilities.
As for Russian trials in the context of its invasion of Ukraine, the commission found that Russian authorities have “systematically fabricated evidence” and “systematically violated a range of fair trial guarantees,” while judges “have not acted with independence and impartiality.”
- ‘Extreme violence’ -
The commission also probed the situation of nationals from 17 countries who were recruited — either voluntarily or through deception — to fight with Russian troops in Ukraine.
They included men from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkiye and Yemen.
“After training, usually lasting between one week and 30 days, they were forced to serve on frontlines in Ukraine, often assigned extremely dangerous duties,” the commission said in its report.
Commanders arbitrarily imposed “extreme violence” as punishment for refusing orders that meant almost certain death, with soldiers describing being treated like “cannon fodder,” sent on “meat assaults” without training or necessary equipment, and “forced to advance at all costs.”
“The evidence collected demonstrates abusive behavior, cruelty, humiliation, inhuman treatment, and a total disregard for human life and dignity, perpetrated with a sense of impunity,” the report said.
Regarding Ukraine, the report voiced concern about the overly broad definition and sometimes distorted interpretation of the crime of “collaboration.”
The commission also said reports regarding violent treatment of conscientious objectors during Ukrainian mobilization were “a source of concern.”
The report will be presented at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.
Moscow does not recognize the commission and does not answer its requests for access, information and meetings.
