Asylum seekers at a hotel in Merseyside are ‘scared to go outside’ after a far-right protest.
Friday night saw violent scenes erupt outside the Suites Hotel, near Kirkby, where the Home Office houses people awaiting a decision on their asylum claims.
Crowds of up to 400 people gathered, with missiles thrown and a police van set on fire and smashed up.
Although the demonstration does not appear to have been driven by organised far-right groups, they had been active in stirring up tensions, Hope Not Hate said.
Far-right groups like Britain First (BF) and Patriotic Alternative (PA) had reportedly made visits to the hotel in recent weeks, but the latter denied any involvement on social media.
Clare Moseley, from Care4Calais was among 120 peaceful counter demonstrators who found themselves cornered in a car park, protected by a makeshift barrier.
‘They tried to get into the hotel, if they had got in can you imagine what would have happened?’ she told the Mirror.
‘People who would throw bricks at the police, what the hell would they have done if they got hold of an asylum seeker?’
Clare and her colleagues were eventually able to flee the scene with the help of a single police van.
On Saturday morning, they returned to the hotel to speak to the asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Syria and Iran who were housed there.
‘They are all pretty intimidated, which, unfortunately, was the whole point of it,’ she stressed.
‘All of them kept saying to me, “Can you get us moved? Can we go somewhere else? We don’t want to stay here.” That was the thing, they kept saying “we don’t feel safe here”.
‘They were saying “we haven’t done anything wrong here, we didn’t come here to cause any trouble”.’
Clare said rumours have begun circulating on social media about a man, who was reportedly staying at the hotel, sexually harassing a schoolgirl.
But she stressed this started after the violence on Friday, not before, condemning misinformation about asylum seekers.
Merseyside Police arrested 15 people arrested amid the demonstration, with 14 of them conditionally bailed.
Jarad Skeete, of Irwell Close, Aigburth, Liverpool, has been charged with violent disorder and assault by beating of an emergency services worker.
Police said the violence left an officer and two members of the public with slight injuries.
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