Migration across the English Channel: Rights block Portsmouth harbor

In the southern English port city of Portsmouth, hundreds of people, some of whom were masked and dressed in black, protested on Sunday night against the arrival of asylum seekers who had crossed the English Channel on rubber dinghies. It was the second day of such protests this weekend.

Hundreds of similar people had already staged an unannounced protest in front of the port of Dover on Saturday morning. This led to major delays in traffic there until lunchtime, but was peaceful and did not result in any arrests.

Both protests were controlled by the right-wing group Patriot Platform.” Behind her is the right-wing activist Daniel Thomas alias “Danny Tommo”. He is an ally of right-wing anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson. According to the anti-racist organization Hope not Hate, Thomas, whose organization sees itself as “Christian-patriotic,” has been repeatedly active in anti-immigration protests over the past two years and has a criminal record for a violent offense in 2016. “We’ve had enough of the immigration of boys from all over the world,” he told those gathered. Others kept chanting “Stop the boats.”

The arrival of a dinghy carrying asylum seekers in Portsmouth was extraordinary. The large inflatable boat with 140 people started from the Baie de Sein, 280 kilometers to the west, near the port city of Cherbourg, instead of from the region around Calais. Both this location and the size of the boat are probably due to the more effective control of the coastal region by French forces.

The development is worrying for the British authorities, not only because the prolonged crossing is more life-threatening, but also because the immigration reception center is in the Dover region.

When the asylum seekers came ashore in Eastney Marina near Portsmouth after being rescued, they were initially stuck there. Because they had to be picked up from there to travel to the reception centers via an access road that was blocked by protesters. Only the arrival of special police forces from many parts of England and an official expulsion early in the morning were able to make the situation safe again. Meanwhile, two police vehicles had their windows smashed.

The British government condemned the behavior at the two protests as “aggressive and intimidating.” The right to demonstrate peacefully is fundamental to British democracy, but it must not degenerate into chaos, said a government spokesman.

The head of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, who was damaged by financial scandals surrounding him and his party, used the opportunity to use the incident to distract from his own scandal. He cynically noted that this boat had come from Baie de Seine to the beaches of Hampshire in the same week that Prime Minister Andy Burnham had approved 45 more security guards on the French coast. Only his party could send the boats back, said Farage. Former Tory MP and current Reform UK politician Suella Braverman had previously described the refugee boats as an invasion in an interview.

The British government emphasized that it was working to prevent the dangerous crossings in order to “create order at the border.” The joint operations of French and British officials have prevented a total of 48,000 crossing attempts and 1,100 boats since the Labor government took office in 2024. The number of successful crossings is the lowest since 2020. However, controls will continue to be expanded and France will deploy 40 percent more emergency boats on the coast in the future.