As UK begins migration crackdown, protesters block transfer of asylum seekers

London: A group of protesters blocked a bus on Thursday from removing asylum seekers from a hotel in south London to a shipping vessel on the south-west England coast, as the UK government began phased action to crack down on illegal migration.

The Metropolitan Police said 'a number of people' have been arrested in the Peckham area of London for public order offences as they chanted slogans in support of refugees and objected to their removal to the Bibby Stockholm barge docked at Portland in Dorset. It forms one among a series of actions being undertaken by Home Office officials to tackle illegal migration.

"Housing migrants in hotels costs the British taxpayer millions of pounds every day. We will not allow this small group of students, posing for social media, to deter us from doing what is right for the British public,” UK Home Secretary James Cleverly said in a social media statement reacting to footage of the south London protests.

Several demonstrators staged a sit down in front of the bus before some of them were forcibly removed by officers. It follows health concerns related to migrants being housed on the barge, which has been in use since August last year as an alternative to hotels for housing asylum seekers.

The protest came a day after the Home Office announced that the first illegal migrants set to be deported to Rwanda under a new law have been detained following a series of UK-wide operations this week. It said operational teams have been “working at pace” to safely and swiftly detain individuals in scope for relocation to Rwanda, with more such detentions due to be carried out in the coming weeks.

"Our dedicated enforcement teams are working at pace to swiftly detain those who have no right to be here so we can get flights off the ground. This is a complex piece of work, but we remain absolutely committed to operationalising the policy, to stop the boats and break the business model of people smuggling gangs,” said Cleverly.

The Home Office stresses that the Rwanda policy will deter migrants from making perilous journeys across the channel by showing clearly that anyone coming to the UK illegally, could be removed to Africa.

“It is vital that operational detail is kept to a minimum, to protect colleagues involved and those being detained, as well as ensuring we can deliver this large-scale operation as quickly as possible,” added Home Office Director of Enforcement Eddy Montgomery.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently made a statement from Downing Street to say that he expects the first deportation flight to take off for Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks’ time, after action such as over 2,200 more detention spaces, training of 200 new caseworkers to quickly process claims and preparation of 500 highly trained escorts being completed.

He said that commercial charters have been booked and an airport has been put on standby, but had insisted that operational details of the action would be kept to a minimum to prevent disruption of his plan to “stop the boats” of thousands of migrants crossing the English Channel illegally.

The topic is a priority issue for the Sunak-led government as it prepares for a general election later this year.