Anti-migrant protests are 'wake-up call' for UK government, says police commissioner

The UK government branded hundreds of masked demonstrators as thuggish after they blocked roads in an attempt to prevent asylum seekers leaving Portsmouth on Sunday. The protest came after around 140 migrants arrived by small boat as tensions over channel crossings continued to mount. We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour we saw in Portsmouth, a spokesperson for the UK's Home Office said in a statement. Sunday's protest followed a similar demonstration on Saturday when masked crowds blocked access to the port of Dover. French authorities said the vessel carrying the 140 migrants had departed from the Baie de Seine in Normandy, an unusually long and risky route compared with the boats that typically depart from closer to Calais and land near Dover. The unrest comes despite recent data suggesting crossings are slowing. The Home Office said channel arrivals in August fell to their lowest level since records began in 2018, with migrants numbers at their lowest since 2020. The average number of passengers per boat has been rising in recent months, however, overall 16,513 migrants have crossed the channel by small boat so far this year. It is a small fraction of all arrivals in Britain, which total over 800,000, most of which come through legal routes on student or work visa.