A clip of Britain First members ‘migrant hunting’ in hotels has provoked outrage on social media, with people calling on the Home Office to get involved.
The footage shows activists roaming along corridors and knocking on the doors of rooms they suspect are occupied by migrants.
Last week protesters formed outside the Daresbury Park Hotel in Warrington where it was claimed ‘illegal immigrants’ were being housed at the expense of British war veterans.
Far right politician Anne Marie Waters told Cheshire Live that she was “sickened” by migrants being put in hotels – claiming the country is sickened by this too.
More out of respect, but also to hide the identities of the migrants who answered their Daresbury Park Hotel doors to Britain First, I have removed them from this edit.
— Marsh4LL (@Marsh4LL1) August 27, 2020
Watch as Ashlea Simon / Robyn takes the lead in behaviour akin to Nazis hunting Jews in 1930's era Germany. pic.twitter.com/eqQdRj2h4W
Reaction
But the reaction on social media suggests differently.
One likened the Britain First action to the Gestapo, while others called it harassment “of the tallest order”.
Earlier this week it was revealed that police have been called to a number of incidents – in London, Birmingham and Essex – where groups of far-right men have harassed people who have been placed in emergency accommodation because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Greater London Authority’s rough sleeping team sent an email to outreach teams saying that protesters from Britain First – whose leader, Paul Golding, was convicted of a terrorism offence in May – had stormed a council-run hotel in Camden over the weekend.
Outreach teams have since been told that the group also stormed hotels in Birmingham, where they gained entry and “harassed several residents”, and Essex.
‘Despicable’
The email read: “Dear all, we are writing to make you aware of an incident which took place this past week at a Covid Protect hotel in the London Borough of Camden.
“A group of men from the extremist ‘Britain First’ group targeted the hotel, attempting to gain entry and demanding to know if the facility was housing asylum seekers. Staff dealt with the incident well and the police were called, and no residents were harmed.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “Harassing migrants who are being legally accommodated in hotels is despicable, and goes against all the values we hold as an open, welcoming city.
“The mayor’s rough sleeping team are working with our charity partners to put measures in place to prevent homeless people sheltering from Covid-19 in hotels from being targeted, mistakenly or otherwise, by these right-wing groups.”
Related: The other prison pandemic
