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Protesters gathered outside a Nottinghamshire border hotel who opposed its hosting asylum seekers were outnumbered by those who said the UK should welcome them. A demonstration had been organized for 12pm on Saturday (February 25) outside the Novotel in Long Eaton, which was taken over by the Home Office last October.

But after learning of the protest, groups including Open Nottingham organized a counter-demonstration which took place from 11 a.m. Those who took part in the counter-demonstration numbered around 100 at one point, with one speaker addressing the gathered crowd saying: “We were clear from the beginning, after what happened in Mansfield, that we were not going to allow asylum seekers and refugees to be harassed by anyone.”

The Mansfield incident referred to took place outside the city’s Midland Hotel on February 4, where people gathered directly outside the hotel gates to protest against immigrant accommodation. Protests against the government’s use of hotels for asylum seekers have taken place across the country in recent weeks.

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At a protest in Merseyside on 10 February a police van was set on fire and stones were thrown. Protests are also taking place in Skegness, with some hoteliers in the seaside town installing fences outside their buildings ahead of the demonstrations.

The latest publicly available data shows that there are currently over 45,500 asylum seekers in UK hotels. One of them is Hange Kautjiziua, 36, who is currently staying at a Derby hotel after traveling to the UK last June from her home country of Namibia.

Kautjiziua said she joined the counter-demonstration on Saturday to show solidarity with the asylum seekers living in the Novotel. He said: “I heard people were coming here today to show solidarity and I wanted to come too because I know what it’s like.

“It’s already difficult as it’s moving to a new country and when you arrive and you think you have a place, being moved to another place just brings back all those emotions of traveling. I came here through Pakistan and Turkey and getting here and then when some people say ‘we don’t want you’, it’s a horrible feeling.

“I am here today to show solidarity, but also to thank the UK for the way they have treated me. I hope to eventually settle here.”

Protesters against the accommodation of asylum seekers began arriving shortly after 11 a.m. and around 50 eventually stood on the opposite side of the road from the counter-protesters, who had taken up positions outside the Novotel gates. One of the asylum-seeking protesters acknowledged that his participation had been “disappointing” and claimed that they had been “shut down” by social media.

Among those protesting was Gary Clarke, 47, of Ilkeston, who said: “I’m not happy when my 80-year-old mum is struggling, having paid into the system all her life, but then we’re letting people have a roof over your head, food and heat for free”. A 51-year-old man from Ilkeston, who did not want to be named, said: “This has nothing to do with racism, it’s about the tax system.

“Our taxes are paying for all these hotels while we have the NHS in absolute state and a cost of living crisis. There has to be a cap on things like this and right now our taxes are just going wrong.” places.”

The latest Home Office data shows that hotel accommodation for asylum seekers is costing UK taxpayers around £5.6m a day. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that, for the year ending June 2022, some 504,000 more people arrived in the UK than left last year, the highest net migration figure ever recorded.

The ONS says factors including the war in Ukraine, specific schemes for people from Afghanistan and Hong Kong and the EU’s first full post-transition period contributed to the figure. A backlog in the processing of asylum cases has also built up, and Rishi Sunak has vowed to fix it by the end of the year.

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Downing Street later said this only applied to claims made before June. Asylum seekers are those who have fled their country and are seeking protection, but have not yet been legally recognized as refugees and are awaiting a decision on their application.

But speaking about people’s frustrations with the government’s immigration policies, counter-protestor Adam Turner, 42, from Nottingham, said: “If people have a problem with the way the government processes immigrants and refugees, and having to put them up in hotels, they should discuss it with the government. They should not harass people who are already vulnerable.”

Holly Tea, 35, also from Nottingham, said: “I heard there was going to be direct action outside a hotel housing asylum seekers and I thought it was completely unnecessary. The government should communicate clearly to the public about what is happening, because it is the lack of information that currently divides communities.

“Fear of the unknown seems to come up a lot from those who are against this and if the government would communicate with the public more clearly I think it would help the situation.” There was a small police presence outside the Novotel during the protests on Saturday, which ended without major incident.

Most of those protesting against housing asylum seekers left the area at 1:30 p.m., with both sides of the debate finally clearing the scene at 2:00 p.m. The Home Office previously said in a statement after Mansfield protest: “The well-being of asylum seekers in our care is of the utmost importance and any attempt to fuel resentment towards them is completely unacceptable.

“Whenever we seek to use sites for asylum accommodation, we contact local law enforcement and other stakeholders to identify any tension in the community. We continually review security at asylum accommodation sites with providers.”

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