Protesters scuffle with police as migrants brought ashore on south coast

About 150 anti-migrant demonstrators gathered in a south coast town to stop a group of migrants, who had crossed the English Channel in a small boat, being brought ashore by the RNLI.

Some flares were set off and there were a few scuffles with police during the stand-off at a marina in Gosport that lasted into the early hours of Monday morning.

The Home Office said 149 migrants were picked up in a mid-Channel rescue operation by the RNLI alongside a French vessel.

They were taken by coach to a processing centre in Kent. It is the second known landing of large numbers of migrants this far west along the south coast in recent years.

A police cordon was in place on Haslar Road in Gosport, where the atmosphere at the protest mostly remained peaceful.

Some protesters stopped police vans from advancing by standing in front of them and chanting "shame on you" and "deport the lot".

Hampshire Police said it deployed officers to "support our partners in the event of an emergency at sea". The force imposed conditions under the Public Order Act as well as powers prohibiting the wearing of face coverings.

Hampshire's Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones said she was "calling on the Home Secretary to intervene urgently to ensure that UK Border Force has the capacity and vessels to transfer people on the water to Dover.

She said: "No sites across the southern coastline of Britain should be used as 'landing sites'. We are not equipped and we do not have the resources to keep policing this."

Posting on social media, Jones added: "Each protest is costing me £150,000 of taxpayers' money from my police budget which I can ill afford to spend.

"That means there is less police officer time on the streets of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight - urgent action is needed.

"This has got to stop."

Zoe Huggins, Conservative leader of Gosport Borough Council, said she was "angry, frustrated and saddened" that "we were in this scenario again".

She said a small number of protesters had left debris, barricades and nails on roads, and had started a couple of small fires.

Huggins said: "Our call to action is that Border Force have bigger boats, they intercept and they take them straight to Dover to a processing centre that they do not choose Gosport as a initial reception."

She also criticised the lack of communication from the Home Office, saying emails sent on Sunday had not been responded to.

She said: "That's just not on. The Home Office and Border Force need to have a grip on this."

A Home Office spokesperson refused to explain why Gosport had been chosen on this occasion, saying they do not comment on "operational processes".

"The Border Security Command works around the clock to monitor the Channel and protect our border," they said.

They added it was "vital we continue to detain, check and process every small boat arrival".

The migrant dinghy appeared to have set off from near Utah Beach in Normandy on Sunday morning, according to ship tracking data.

It is the third crossing in a month. So far this year 19,451 people are recorded as having crossed the Channel in small boats.

That number is 43% lower than this time last year and 23% below the figure at this stage in 2024.

Last month, more than 100 migrants landed at Eastney in Portsmouth, leading to more scuffles between police and demonstrators.

The 51 migrants were were ultimately taken to Dover by sea.

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