Demonstrations outside asylum hotels are making people who have fled persecution in their home countries fear for their lives
Asylum seekers who fled their home countries amid the threat of persecution have spoken of their fears as anti-migrant protestors demonstrate outside the UK hotels they live in.
Hundreds of anti-migrant protesters descended on the Thistle Barbican Hotel in Islington on Saturday, some adorned in England shirts, chanting: “Thistle Barbican needs to go – locals say no”.
Police were forced to push back and separate the group and officers made nine arrests, six of which were under the Public Order Act.
In the days leading up to the protest, several asylum seekers housed in the hotel told The i Paper of their fears as demonstrations take place across the country.
Anti-migrant protestors gather outside the Thistle Barbican Hotel, Islington, north London
(Photo: Isabel Loubser)
Ahmed* has been living in the hotel for the past 26 months. Back in Iran, he was a stage and screen actor, and taught acting and singing to college students.
He became aware of the planned protests through Facebook groups that gathered more than 900 members in a matter of days.
Leading up to the protest, social media posts featuring misinformation about rates of crime around the hotel and the ethnicities of its residents were spread widely, racking up thousands of likes and shares.
‘Now I feel ashamed’
“If I knew it was like this, maybe I would have stayed in my country,” Ahmed said.
“Maybe I would have been killed, maybe I would have been tortured. I sometimes think that would have been better than this. Because now I feel ashamed.
“I was happy. I had my students, I had my job, I had my money, I had my house, I had my car, I had everything. I didn’t need the trouble, but I was in serious danger.”
Ahmed said he was forced to flee because he is a Sunni Muslim, a minority in Iran, and for encouraging his female students to protest the mandatory hijab rule. He claims he faced arrest and jail multiple times prior to leaving Iran.
A protester against the asylum hotel carries a Union flag as she is talked to by the media during the protest (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images)
He said: “When I arrived here, I was thinking ‘we are here, we have our respect’, because people say you fight for your freedom, you fight for women’s rights, you fight for human rights, but when I arrived here I find out we are not welcome here.”
In the week leading up to the protest, police estimated that 800 people could arrive, many from outside London. The entrances to the hotel were barricaded and residents were advised not to leave.
One charity worker showed The i Paper messages she had received from residents of the hotel asking whether the protestors had come to kill them.
‘Every time we go outside, it feels like people are against us’
Ali* fled Afghanistan after being pursued by the Taliban for teaching IT to girls. He remained in his room as he heard demonstrators’ shouts and chants.
The protests, he said, made him “anxious” and reminded him of the persecution he had faced in Afghanistan.
Ali said: “We came here seeking safety and a chance to work, learn and contribute, but now we’re facing a different kind of pressure. Back home, we suffered physical persecution. Here, it’s emotional.
Counter demonstrators, organised by Stand Up To Racism, stand against far right presence outside the hotel (Photo: Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
“Every time we go outside, it feels like people are against us. Even something as simple as offering help to an elderly person makes me think twice, because I no longer know who is kind and who might carry hate.
“We weren’t safe there [Afghanistan] because the Taliban hated anyone who didn’t share their extremist mentality. Sadly, some of the hostility we’re seeing here reminds me of that same mindset, just in a different form.”
Counter-demonstrators, organised by Stand up to Racism alongside various other community groups, chanted “Let in every refugee” on Saturday.
‘They’re scared’
Among those within the group was Mo Naeimi, who lived in the Thistle Barbican for 18 months whilst he was waiting for his claim to be approved.
He now works with a charity that supports hotel residents as they navigate the asylum process, helping them with accessing English classes and finding a place to live once their claim gets approved.
Mr Naeimi said: “At the moment, they are just scared, scared that this will be forever, that people will hate us. They don’t know that this isn’t the majority. We try and talk to them to say this is not what British people are. The majority of people will welcome you, not hate you.”
Mr Naeimi escaped from Iran in 2022 after he and his friends were arrested for visiting home churches and he was suspected of converting to Christianity. He then embarked on a 20-day journey arranged by people smugglers that saw him travel from Iran to Turkey and through Europe in the back of trucks and lorries before arriving in Dover on a small boat.
Mo Naeimi attends the counter demonstration outside the hotel he used to live in (Photo: Isabel Loubser)
For him and other residents, the protests bring back the fear they felt as they were forced to flee their homes.
Mr Naeimi said: “Many of these people, they had horrible journeys. I use my own experience. In Europe, in winter, soldiers were trying to kick people, punch people, telling them to stay away from their countries. People were tortured, shot, left in the snow just to die.
“[Asylum seekers] have seen much worse than this but when you just run away from all those horrible things and they say this is a country where you are safe, normally and generally you should feel this is a safe point.”
He added: “You see that the people look like normal people and they’re shouting they don’t want us. Are they going to turn into the soldiers that are trying to kill us or hurt us? It’s a horrible feeling, and it’s really difficult for others to understand.”
Sir Andy Cooke, chief of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, has warned there is “every possibility” that similar violence to the Southport riots of summer 2024 could reoccur.
Over 25,000 migrants have arrived in small boats this year so far. The Government has vowed to reduce crossing and Rachel Reeves has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.
*The asylum seekers interviewed in this piece asked to remain anonymous and under the agreement of a pseudonym