A second day of demonstrations outside asylum hotels saw protesters clash with police on Sunday as the government set out plans to accelerate the appeals process for refugees whose claims are rejected.
Under the “Abolish Asylum System” banner, demonstrators gathered in Solihull, Dudley, Epping, Stevenage, London, Manchester, and Norwich.
Yvette Cooper said a new fast-track appeals system would see decisions made more quickly, curtailing the spiralling backlog in the courts and helping Labour meet its promise to end the use of asylum hotels.
While the backlog of initial decisions has been cut under Labour, there are about 51,000 asylum appeals waiting to be heard, more than a year on average to reach a decision.
Decisions will be prioritised for foreign national offenders and those in asylum accommodation under the plans, with professionally trained adjudicators replacing judges to remove cases from the backed-up justice system.
The home secretary said on Sunday: “We inherited an asylum system in complete chaos with a soaring backlog of asylum cases and a broken appeals system with thousands of people in the system for years on end.
“That is why we are taking practical steps to fix the foundations and restore control and order to the system.”
Labour has promised to end the use of asylum hotels by the next general election, but critics, including Labour MPs, have called for Ms Cooper to bring forward the plans and remove migrants from hotels sooner.
Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have called for their use, which is costing taxpayers billions and stoking tensions in communities, to end immediately.
The Reform UK leader will unveil a plan for the mass deportation of migrants on Tuesday as he seeks to pile pressure on Labour over the issue.
Several arrests were made at protests that took place against asylum hotels on Saturday, with anti-migrant protesters and anti-racism counterprotesters clashing.
Three arrests were made at the protest outside the Four Points hotel in Horley, Surrey, with two for a breach of the peace and one for breaching the conditions of a community protection notice.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, a council leader said that protests which took place the day before in Perth were sparked by “completely false” claims of further asylum hotels opening in the area.
“A lot of this in Perth started off two or three weeks ago when there was a claim there was another hotel or two hotels going to be used for housing asylum seekers – completely false,” Grant Laing, the SNP leader of Perth and Kinross council, told BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show radio programme.
The use of asylum hotels has increased in the past year under Labour, with critics warning that they are becoming flashpoints in communities and trapping migrants in limbo.
On Tuesday, the High Court granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, from 12 September. The judgment, which the Home Office is to appeal, followed a series of violent protests that resulted in multiple arrests and saw police officers injured.
In one of Sunday’s demonstrations, uniformed police stood guard outside the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf, east London, which has recently been the focus of anti-migrant protests.
Security guards could also be seen standing behind full-length barriers that blocked off the entrance way.
About 20 protesters stood quietly on the other side of the road with union flags propped up against a fence.
They ranged in ages from an adult wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of activist Tommy Robinson to a schoolgirl wearing a union flag dress and bow in her hair. She had tied a St George’s flag around her shoulders.
A woman carried a homemade banner, with a St George’s flag drawn on it, which read: “Tower Hamlets council house homeless Brits first”.
Another banner read: “Enough is enough protect our women and girls.”
