UK sees big protests over govt migrant hotel policy

The United Kingdom government is grappling with increasingly large and violent protests against asylum seekers that included an incident in West London on the weekend in which masked men tried to enter a hotel temporarily housing dozens of refugees.

The UK capital's Metropolitan Police said officers arrested five people on Saturday at a Crowne Plaza hotel in West Drayton, a few kilometers north of Heathrow Airport, after they damaged a security barrier and entered the hotel through a rear door while 500 people protested outside.

There were several other protests on the weekend — and counter demonstrations against the far-right — in the aftermath of a court ruling on Friday that found the UK government can legally house asylum seekers at taxpayers' expense at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, a ruling experts saw as a test case.

Residents around the Bell Hotel had argued the building should be used for paying guests and that using it for asylum seekers caused inconvenience and danger to neighbors. A London court initially sided with the neighbors, but the Court of Appeal reversed that decision, and said the government could indeed house asylum-seekers there.

Far-right groups criticized the ruling and said the UK should not be housing asylum seekers in hotels. Reform UK added it plans to deport 600,000 illegal arrivals if it is elected to run the country in the next general election.

Friday's court ruling also sparked protests in Falkirk in Scotland, and in Warrington in Cheshire, Skegness in Lincolnshire, Barnwood in Gloucestershire, and Portsmouth in Hampshire.

Commander Adam Slonecki, who was in charge of policing in London during the weekend, told the BBC "further arrests will be made if we need to tackle disorder".

"We understand strength of feeling on these issues, but where peaceful protest crosses the line into criminality, including injuries to our officers, we will take immediate action," he said. "We deployed additional officers to the area and five arrests have been made for offences including assault on a police officer, affray, and violent disorder."

More than 111,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending June 2025, 14 percent more than in the year ending June 2024.

Most asylum seekers were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria.

Thirteen local government councils are considering taking legal action to try to block the central government housing asylum seekers in hotels, The Times newspaper reported.

Sky News said many protesters taking part in demonstrations on the weekend insisted they were not far-right supporters but were simply concerned about the high cost of housing thousands of people during a cost-of-living crisis, and at a time when the central government has said it has run out of money.