U.K. migrant protests spark angry confrontations : NPR

LONDON — Opponents and supporters of migrants faced off in angry confrontations at demonstrations held around Britain over the holiday weekend as the government scrambled to deal with fallout from a court order that will force a hotel in a London suburb to evict asylum-seekers.

The ruling has created a headache for the government, which has struggled to curb unauthorized migration and fulfill its responsibility to accommodate those seeking refuge.

Immigration has become a political flashpoint as countries across the West try to cope with an influx of migrants seeking a better life as they flee war-torn countries, poverty, regions wracked by climate change or political persecution. The debate in the U.K. has focused on migrants crossing the English Channel in overloaded boats run by smugglers, as well as escalating tensions over housing tens of thousands of asylum-seekers at public expense.

To help resolve the crisis, the government announced Sunday that it would speed up asylum appeals that could lead to more deportations and clear a backlog of cases.

Here’s a look at the issue:

The protests

The latest round of demonstrations followed weeks of protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, on the outskirts of London, after a hotel resident allegedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and was charged with sexual assault. The man has denied the accusation and is due to stand trial later this month.

Epping Forest District Council won a temporary injunction to shut down the hotel because of “unprecedented levels of protest and disruption,” which had led to several arrests.

The High Court decision Tuesday in favor of the council — which the government wants to appeal — inspired anti-migrant demonstrators gathering under the banner of Abolish Asylum System to protest over the weekend. The group Stand up to Racism rallied counterprotesters.

The two groups hurled insults at each other in several communities Saturday as police struggled in places like Bristol to keep them apart. There were more than a dozen arrests, but no serious violence reported.

Groups gathered peacefully outside hotels used to house migrants in Birmingham and London’s Canary Wharf on Sunday.

The hotels

The government is legally obligated to house asylum-seekers. Using hotels to do so had been a marginal issue until 2020, when the number of asylum-seekers increased sharply and the then-Conservative government had to find new ways to house them.

A record 111,084 people applied for asylum in the year to June 2025, but fewer than a third of them are temporarily living in hotels, according to Home Office figures released Thursday.

The number of asylum-seekers housed in hotels stood at just over 32,000 at the end of June, the Home Office said. That figure was up 8% from about 29,500 a year earlier but far below the peak of more than 56,000 in September 2023.

The politics

Many politicians, such as hard-right Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage, have sought to link many of the problems the country faces, such as health care and housing, to migrant arrivals.

Others, including the government, argue that the likes of Farage are whipping up the issue for political gain and that there are no easy answers to an issue affecting many European countries.

The leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, urged Tory councils all over the country to launch legal challenges similar to that of Epping if their legal advice allowed.

The ruling Labour Party dismissed her appeal as “desperate and hypocritical nonsense,” but several Labour-led councils have also suggested they, too, could mount legal action against asylum hotels in their areas.

The worry is that tensions could explode into the sort of violence that ravaged many towns and cities in England last summer in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and several wounded.

Government options

The government’s first priority is to sharply decrease the number of dangerous channel crossings.

There have been more than 27,000 unauthorized arrivals so far this year, nearly 50% higher than at the same point last year and ahead of the number at this time of year in 2022, when a record 45,755 came ashore, the Home Office said.

Having ditched the Conservative administration’s plan to send migrants who arrived by unauthorized means to Rwanda, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would disrupt the gangs profiting off migrant trafficking.

The government is also looking to speed up processing asylum claims. It’s hoping a deal with France to send migrants who cross the channel back to France will deter for others.

Whether those plans succeed, the issue of what to do with the tens of thousands of asylum-seekers in the country remains.

The government scrapped the use of a barge to house migrants off the south coast earlier this year and plans to end housing at military barracks in Kent next month. But a former air base in Essex is expected to add more beds for men seeking asylum.

The easiest option would most likely house asylum-seekers in the private sector, but that risks compounding problems in the rental market in a country where housebuilding has been low for years.