![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Victoria-Hotel-Protest-Oldham-Victoria-Hotel-oldham-stand-up-to-racism-migrants-hotel-protest.jpg\")
Anti-immigration protestors outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Oldham (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\nThere were around 150 people with police separating the two groups<\/p>\n
16:25, 30 Aug 2025Updated 16:29, 30 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
Anti-immigration protestors outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Oldham (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
More protests have taken place in Oldham as tensions surrounding the use of hotels to house asylum seekers show no sign of abating.<\/p>\n
Around 50 anti-racism protestors gathered outside the Victoria Hotel on Hollinwood<\/a> Avenue in Chadderton<\/a> on Saturday (August 30) morning, separated from those protesting against the hotel by a neon-clad line of police.<\/p>\n At first, those from Stand Up To Racism outnumbered the scattered few bearing England flags and Union Jacks some thirty feet away.<\/p>\n The group, a mix of young and old, had a megaphone, loudspeaker and matching placards bearing signs reading \u2018refugees welcome\u2019, \u2018stop the far right\u2019 and \u2018racists, go home\u2019.<\/p>\n They also sang chants such as “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here,\u201d and \u201cThere are many many more of us than you”.<\/p>\n By around 1.30pm around 100 anti-immigration protestors had also clustered outside the hotel and lining Hollingwood Way.<\/p>\n That group included families, teenagers, middle-aged couples, children in prams and older people in camping chairs draped in flags.<\/p>\n One woman stood blowing bubbles with a young child in a buggy, next to her daughter who was waving a Union Jack. Other little girls perched on their dad\u2019s shoulders, also draped in flags.<\/p>\n Others still, mostly men aged from their 20s to 40s, were carrying smart-looking Go-Pros and phone-holders, providing commentary and opinion as they recorded and live-streamed.<\/p>\n There were Union Jacks everywhere: caps, ties, on bunny ears. One young man filming wore a cap emblazoned with the word TRUMP.<\/p>\n There were shouts of \u2018send them back\u2019, \u2018you\u2019re not welcome\u2019, \u2018keep our streets safe\u2019 and \u2018save our children\u2019.<\/p>\n One man directed a megaphone over the hedge towards the curtained windows of the hotel, shouting: \u201cEvery single one of yous are going home.\u201d<\/p>\n A man watching from inside the hotel made a hand-heart gesture before shutting his curtains.<\/p>\n The line of police kept the protestors apart, and mostly, it was a peaceful affair. Stand Up to Racism began blasting copyrighted music from a loud-speaker, presumably in hopes of getting the livestreams taken down from Youtube and Facebook for a copyright strike.<\/p>\n \u201cWho made the NHS<\/a>? Migrants made the NHS,\u201d they chanted. \u201cIt was doctors and nurses,\u201d came the counter from the other side.<\/p>\n It was only as the anti-racism group began to wind down their protest that the tensions flared.<\/p>\n Escorted by police, they had to pass by the anti-immigration protestors, who waved sarcastic goodbyes and other obscene gestures at the departing group, shouting \u2018go back to where you came from\u2019.<\/p>\n As they left the hotel and made their way up Hollinwood Way towards the tram stop, they were accompanied all the way by the camera-bearing contingent of the anti-immigration protestors.<\/p>\n Still playing copyrighted music to thwart the live-streamers, there was a slightly incongruous scene as men screamed \u2018traitors to your country\u2019 and \u2018weak, weak lefty scum\u2019 in the group\u2019s faces, in time to the beat of Taylor Swift\u2019s Anti-Hero.<\/p>\n Tensions were high and the anger was palpable, but the only minor scuffle came as a man bearing a Union Jack got in the way of the police, who were trying to keep order while keeping people off the road, a dual carriageway which cars were flying down.<\/p>\n Police formed another barrier, preventing the anti-immigration protesters from following them onto the platform, where anti-racism protesters were singing along to another Taylor Swift song.<\/p>\n From the street below, someone shouted: \u201cBye, middle-class people. Go back to Didsbury<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Saturday’s gathering follows a similar protest held outside the hotel last Saturday (August 23)<\/a>. In 2021, it was confirmed the hotel had stopped taking guest bookings and asylum seekers were understood to have been moved in.<\/p>\n At the time, council leader Arooj Shah said: “Oldham<\/a> has a proud history of welcoming people of all nationalities, and we are ready and willing to play our part in helping these vulnerable people who have been through so much.<\/p>\n “While this is a temporary emergency solution, and we do not know exactly when these people will arrive or how long they will be here with us, what I am certain of is that Oldhamers will want to help, and make them as welcome as possible.”<\/p>\n The demonstrations are part of sustained, nationwide protests against such hotels. A number are planned for Saturday across the country, including outside the Bell Hotel in Epping in Essex, where three men have been arrested.<\/p>\n Regular protests had been held outside the Bell after an asylum seeker was charged with trying to kiss a 14-year-old girl, which he denies.<\/p>\n The Government won its appeal on Friday against a High Court ruling<\/a> temporarily banning asylum seekers from being housed at the hotel, meaning they will still be able to stay there.<\/p>\n In Greater Manchester, there are currently nine hotels being used to house asylum seekers, the Manchester Evening News understands.<\/p>\n Four hotels are still being used to house asylum seekers in Manchester, with one in Oldham; two in Stockport<\/a>; and two in Trafford<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756611133_609_0_Victoria-Hotel-Protest-Oldham-Victoria-Hotel-oldham-stand-up-to-racism-migrants-hotel-protest.jpg\")
The group from Stand Up to Racism(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756611134_670_0_Victoria-Hotel-Protest-Oldham-Victoria-Hotel-oldham-stand-up-to-racism-migrants-hotel-protest.jpg\")
Many of the anti-immigration group had Go-Pros and other professional recording equipment (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756611134_329_0_Victoria-Hotel-Protest-Oldham-Victoria-Hotel-oldham-stand-up-to-racism-migrants-hotel-protest.jpg\")
An anti-immigration protestor wearing a cap with the legend ‘TRUMP: KEEP AMERICA GREAT'(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756611135_765_0_Victoria-Hotel-Protest-Oldham-Victoria-Hotel-oldham-stand-up-to-racism-migrants-hotel-protest.jpg\")
An altercation between a police liason officer and an anti-immigration protestor (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756611136_6_0_Victoria-Hotel-Protest-Oldham-Victoria-Hotel-oldham-stand-up-to-racism-migrants-hotel-protest.jpg\")
Tensions between anti-racism and anti-immigration protestors outside the Victoria Hotel in Oldham(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n