{"id":99935,"date":"2026-08-08T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/99935\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:10:08","slug":"the-quiet-market-town-where-anti-migrant-protests-are-leaving-people-in-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/99935\/","title":{"rendered":"The quiet market town where anti-migrant protests are leaving people in fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Norfolk<\/a> market town of Thetford has become the latest epicentre of protests linked to government plans to house asylum seekers<\/a> at former military sites, with residents saying they are \u201cfrightened\u201d after three consecutive nights of disorder.<\/p>\n

Six people have been arrested over this week\u2019s unrest. An officer was hit with a rock, one spat at and another \u201cseriously bitten\u201d on Wednesday, police said.<\/p>\n

Tensions had been building since the Government in June proposed<\/a> moving thousands of asylum seekers into disused military facilities<\/a> to clear hotels across the country currently housing migrants<\/a>. One of these proposed sites, RAF Barnham, is located about two miles south of Thetford town centre.<\/p>\n

Some protesters targeted residential properties they believed were housing asylum seekers, police said, adding that some asylum seekers had to be escorted from homes as a result of the unrest. <\/p>\n

Residents told The i Paper that the protests they saw began peacefully before growing violent. <\/p>\n

\"HOUSEProtesters targeted and damaged houses they believed were housing asylum seekers (Photo: PA)<\/p>\n

\u2018People can barely find jobs right now\u2019<\/p>\n

If plans are approved, RAF Barnham<\/a> could house up to 1,250 adult male asylum applicants aged 18 to 65, the Home Office said, adding that the site would have security personnel and CCTV, and would operate for \u201ca minimum of ten years\u201d.<\/p>\n

One resident and business owner in Thetford said he does not condone the recent protests turning \u201cviolent\u201d but that he disagrees with the \u201csilly\u201d proposals regarding the old Ministry of Defence (MoD) site. <\/p>\n

This person, like others interviewed for the article, spoke to The i Paper on Friday on the condition of anonymity or asked that their full name not be published, to protect their businesses and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the town would get ruined because it\u2019s quite small and that many new people would stick out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can barely find jobs right now, people can barely survive right now, so to be dumping 1,200-odd new people here too, I don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man said he \u201cwas not from English roots\u201d but had \u201cnever experienced anything negative towards myself or my business\u201d during his 16 years in the town. He suggested that \u201cpeople may have come from outside [Thetford] to stir things up a bit, add racism and violence [to the protests] because the people in town are very nice people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Norfolk Police have not commented on where the Thetford protesters came from, or the possibility of outside influence. Two years ago, residents in Southport alleged that far-right rioters were seen arriving in the Merseyside town<\/a> from other parts of the UK, spurred on by immigration-related misinformation<\/a> regarding a fatal knife attack at a dance class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that represents the whole town,\u201d he continued, adding that residents fear asylum seekers could \u201cwork illegally, work cheaper \u2013 and people will be upset with that when they\u2019re already struggling to find a job themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PoilceA total of six protesters have been arrested this week in Thetford (Photo: James Linsell Clark\/SWNS)<\/p>\n

\u2018The place could erupt\u2019<\/p>\n

A separate fear, another long-time Thetford resident said, stems from the thought that \u201cmonstrosities\u201d seen by locals on social media could come to their doorstep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [asylum seekers] that are coming to Thetford haven\u2019t done anything wrong \u2013 yet,\u201d said Wayne, a truck driver who has lived in the town for the past decade. He said that he, similar to other parents he knows in the area, worries for his young daughter\u2019s safety having seen reports of previous attacks by some migrants in the UK on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these people moved in, you probably wouldn\u2019t know the difference, but it is being forced at you on a daily basis that some monstrosities are happening and the government doesn\u2019t seem to be listening, so people are frightened.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has happened here yet, but people think it is going to happen, even if it\u2019s a very small minority of people who are actually offending. And those that are coming here who really just want to settle down, it makes it difficult for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"THETFORD,Locals fear that an influx of immigrants will make it even harder to find jobs (Photo: Martin Pope\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThen there\u2019s the angle that we\u2019re paying taxes to look after them when we can\u2019t even look after our own people. It\u2019s expensive now, to live in this country, and when you\u2019re struggling yourself, that\u2019s when you see people start to flare up and kick off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all live through our screens and we\u2019re living in a century where too many believe everything they see. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to get any better and if they do move into that camp, I think the place is going to erupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Put Thetford back decades\u2019<\/p>\n

The local Labour MP, Terry Jermy, previously criticised the plans to use RAF Barnham, calling on the Home Office to end the \u201csecrecy and confusion\u201d around the proposals.<\/p>\n

But Jermy has since been heavily critical of the unrest, saying it has \u201cput Thetford back decades\u201d and was frightening residents, particularly \u201cpeople from minority ethnic communities who are contacting me terrified that they are going to be misidentified as an asylum seeker and attacked\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"THETFORD,Thetford\u2019s MP says the unrest has \u201cput Thetford back decades\u201d (Photo: Martin Pope\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Jermy said he was aware of properties being \u201cpelted with eggs\u201d.<\/p>\n

One local business owner who lives and works near one of the sites of Thursday\u2019s protests said the protests should be \u201cpeaceful\u201d but added that she \u201ccan understand why there are residents acting like this, why people are mad and getting angrier\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the problem will increase if [the asylum seekers] won\u2019t be moved from Thetford or other towns, especially when we saw the videos of what\u2019s going on in Spain<\/a>,\u201d she said, referring to thousands of migrants seen flooding the enclave of Ceuta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came here 20 years ago I followed the law, all of England\u2019s rules, I came here legally and I paid to be here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not against immigration but it should be legal, even with asylum \u2013 we should know who they are, names, ages, why they are here \u2013 and I\u2019m confused that policemen are protecting them more than us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PoliceNorfolk Police\u2019s Chief Constable said some protesters have \u2018crossed the line\u2019 (Photo: Scott Hussey\/SWNS)<\/p>\n

Speaking on BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme, Norfolk Police Chief Constable Paul Sanford said protesters had \u201ccrossed the line\u201d as he defended his force\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

Sanford said: \u201cWe have people who are exercising their right to protest, and, of course, we will support that. There are people who live in Thetford who are concerned, understandably concerned, about some of the things that are happening in their town.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, across three consecutive nights, a group of people have crossed the line as to what is acceptable. And we have been appropriately policing those behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norfolk market town of Thetford has become the latest epicentre of protests linked to government plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1351,6151,284,3709,3261,250,5,6,7975],"class_list":["post-99935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-asylum","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-immigration","tag-migrants","tag-norfolk","tag-protests","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-violence"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117062416770373920","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}