British police arrested 45 people yesterday during a protest in London against the transfer of applicants for asylum, accommodated in a hotel, on a barge off the coast of southern England, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Dozens of protesters outside the hotel in Peckham, south-east London, tried to stop the bus carrying the asylum seekers by bursting its tires and blocking its path, London police said.
Tackling illegal migration is one of the tasks of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and to reduce the high cost of housing migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed, authorities are trying to use barges and former military sites. points out Reuters.
Critics, however, call the conditions of the barge moored in Portland Harbor in Dorset and accommodating up to 500 people the "Bibi Stockholm" inhumane and compare it to a prison.
Several police officers were attacked during the protest, but none of them were seriously injured, police said.