Charities have warned of the increasing danger to asylum seekers posed by far-right protesters after small boat arrivals were moved from their usual landing place in Dover to further along the coast to avoid clashes.
The Guardian understands that Home Office officials received intelligence that some of those participating in what was billed the Great British National Protest in Dover on Saturday afternoon could have been planning to target Kent Intake Unit, where small boat arrivals are initially processed after being escorted to shore in Dover by the Border Force.
A flag of the white supremacist party Patriotic Alternative, led by the former BNP official Mark Collett, was photographed at the march.
A total of 153 people who arrived in three dinghies on Saturday were “landed” in Ramsgate and processed at Manston, the site where small boat arrivals are usually taken to after going through KIU.
It is highly unusual for small boats to be landed at Ramsgate, and the change is thought to have been to avoid potential clashes with protesters.
Small boats were previously “landed” in Ramsgate in 2022 owing to the P&O Ferries crisis. Western Jet Foil, another processing site, was targeted by the extreme rightwing terrorist Andrew Leak in 2022, who threw two or three incendiary devices at the site before killing himself.
The Home Office decision to divert small boat arrivals to avoid clashes with the far right comes as tensions mount between asylum seekers and anti-migration protesters at hotels.
Asylum hotels have long been a target for the far right, and more than 1,000 protesters recently gathered outside the Bell Hotel in Epping. One asylum seeker, who had been moved from the hotel, told the Guardian that many of those inside were “very very scared”.
Far-right activity linked to the Bell Hotel can be traced back to the early months of the pandemic, when the Home Office started using hotels on a large scale to accommodate asylum seekers. Earlier this year asylum seekers were evacuated from the hotel after a suspected arson attack.
NGOs told the Guardian they continue to raise concerns about the safety of asylum seekers in the face of threats from protesters, but fear the Home Office is not responding adequately.
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Louise Calvey, executive director of the charity Asylum Matters, said: “‘It is shameful that as a country refugees have to be protected from extremist demonstrations. They have already been through a living hell. It’s positive that the government took proactive steps on Saturday to protect people but a shame on all of us that this was necessary.
“Government must risk assess their arrivals mechanisms, their hotels and other sources of accommodation according to the risk presented by extremists. Several hotels have been subjected to repeated attacks and flagged as areas of high risk. This inevitably raises questions on risk assessment mechanisms and government approach to safeguarding people.”
The Home Office declined to comment on the decision to divert small boat arrivals from Dover to Ramsgate on Saturday.
On the security situation at asylum hotels a Home Office spokesperson said: “There are also fewer asylum hotels since the election. By restoring grip on the system, speeding up decision-making and working with local authorities to identify the most appropriate accommodation, we will end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, saving £1bn a year.”
Home Office sources said that 24-hour security monitoring of hotels was in place and that critical incident management was kept under review and could be speedily adapted if necessary.
