Anti-racism campaigners believe it is an \u201cintimidation tactic\u201d against asylum seekers<\/a>, as protests continue to rage outside hotels housing migrants.<\/p>\n Flag defenders say the outpouring of patriotism is about wider frustrations with deprived communities being ignored by politicians.<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n The arrival of the \u201cflag wars\u201d seen in England<\/a> \u2013 Union Jacks and St George\u2019s crosses on lampposts at a time of tension over immigration \u2013 in Scotland poses a problem for the SNP<\/a>.<\/p>\n Addressing the flags going up in Falkirk, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Paisley \u2013 places which have all seen protests at asylum hotels \u2013 First Minister John Swinney said the Saltire was a \u201cflag of welcome\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cRefugees are welcome\u201d, said the SNP leader. Residents angry about asylum seekers living close by to them do not appear to share his view.<\/p>\n Falkirk has emerged as the angry frontline of the immigration debate in Scotland, as activists continue to face off around a hotel housing asylum seekers on the edge of the town centre.<\/p>\n Around 100 people gathered to chant \u201cget them out\u201d at the latest demo outside the Cladhan Hotel on Wednesday evening. It is the fifth such event in the past month.<\/p>\n Falkirk\u2019s Save Our Future Save Our Kids Future (SOFSOKF) has said it was \u201cdisgusted\u201d that Saltires had been taken down by council staff and is fundraising to put up more.<\/p>\n There have been heated exchanges with counter-protesters from Stand Up to Racism and Falkirk for All, who have turned on the other side of a police barricade to chant: \u201cRefugees are welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n Several arrests have been made for behaviour outside the hotel since protests began in mid-August. A brick was thrown through a window of the hotel last week \u2013 an incident police are still investigating.<\/p>\n Tensions have been building ever since June, when 29-year-old asylum seeker Sadeq Nikzad was jailed for the rape of a teenage girl in Falkirk town centre in 2023.<\/p>\n The i Paper heard some anti-asylum protesters shouting \u201cbeast\u201d at asylum seekers coming and going from the hotel on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n Cameron Manning, a 30-year-old campaigner with Falkirk for All, is dismayed. \u201cWe don\u2019t believe it\u2019s fair that because of a single incident that it is enough to tar an entire group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Manning claimed some on the opposite side of the barricade had been shouting the name of English far-right activist Tommy Robinson at recent events. \u201cThey\u2019ve made very little effort to distance themselves from those far-right associations.\u201d<\/p>\n Some anti-asylum protesters who spoke to The i Paper dismissed the idea they have anything to do with the far right. Most referred to \u201csafety\u201d as their big motivation for turning up \u2013 citing the rape conviction.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not racist, I\u2019m not far right,\u201d said 59-year-old Alan Valentine. \u201cIt\u2019s about safety. It\u2019s single men and they\u2019re hanging around the town in gangs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know who they are,\u201d added the Falkirk resident. \u201cIt\u2019s a disgrace that we don\u2019t have control of who is coming in [to the UK]. They\u2019re getting treated better than us. They get three meals a day, they get free board, they\u2019re at the food banks.\u201d<\/p>\n Kevin, 55, who grew up in Falkirk, added: \u201cThese people should be held in detention camps. If they\u2019re eligible to be in our country, fine. If they aren\u2019t eligible, remove them straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n Stand Up to Racism said Richard McFarlane of Patriotic Alternative \u2013 one of Britain\u2019s largest far-right organisations \u2013 made a microphoned speech at the first Falkirk protest on 16 August.<\/p>\n The group claims McFarlane told the crowd: \u201cKeep Britain white.\u201d He has been seen at several SOFSOKF events since then.<\/p>\n Connor Graham, 28-year-lead organiser of SOFSOKF, told The i Paper: \u201cI\u2019ve done everything in my power to tell these outside organisations not to come. I had a conversation with him [McFarlane] a couple of days ago saying he\u2019s not welcome here with his banners.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not interested in any of that, racism and the far-right,\u201d added Graham.<\/p>\n Mark Paterson, chair of the Falkirk Trade Unions Council, said some people were \u201cgetting whipped up into a frenzy\u201d. He accused the far-right elements of \u201cjumping on the bandwagon\u201d to stir up trouble.<\/p>\n But he believes frustrations in deprived parts of Falkirk run deep. \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see residents being used,\u201d said Paterson. \u201cBecause they\u2019re frustrated about all kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lack of jobs in Falkirk, a lack of housing, their own services have been cut \u2013 it\u2019s a perfect storm. It\u2019s being used against asylum seekers.\u201d<\/p>\n One younger anti-asylum protester, 21-year-old Kyle, told The i Paper that Scottish flags going up in Falkirk went beyond immigration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about asylum seekers. That\u2019s part of it. We should be looking after people in Falkirk first. But there\u2019s no jobs here. There\u2019s a lack of housing. The cost of living is disgraceful. So it\u2019s frustration with a lot of things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Manning said he was in no doubt the spread of flags was tied to the wave of anti-asylum protests. \u201cThe timing of it and who is promoting it, suggests it\u2019s an intimidation tactic against migrants,\u201d said the Falkirk for All campaigner. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to people of south-Asian descent who have lived here all their lives who say it\u2019s making them feel unwelcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex O\u2019Kane, a north Glasgow activist who runs the No1Seems2Care Facebook group, has recently put up Scotland flags in the area. He told The i Paper he was motivated by the failure to tackle crime, food poverty and the housing shortage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a symbol to politicians that things have to change,\u201d said O\u2019Kane. \u201cWhen people say it\u2019s racist, I take great offence at that.\u201d<\/p>\n Former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon<\/a> said she had \u201cnever been that into flags\u201d and urged people to \u201ccalm down a little bit over flags\u201d.<\/p>\n However, the rise in support for Reform UK<\/a> in Scotland poses a problem for both the SNP and Scottish Labour. Nigel Farage\u2019s party is no longer seen as an English import<\/a> and recent polls them on course to win up to 15 seats at next year\u2019s Holyrood election.<\/p>\n Professor James Mitchell said Farage would be delighted that the Scottish flag, rather than the Union Jack, was being used by the party\u2019s anti-immigration voter base north of the border.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Reform UK, they will want to be associated with anything that is Scottish,\u201d said the professor of public policy at the University of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SNP has a bit of problem here,\u201d Professor Mitchell added. \u201cThe SNP has tried to capture the flag over the years. To some extent they\u2019ve been hoisted by their own petard.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult for John Swinney and the SNP to say, \u2018The Saltire is flag of welcome\u2019, but exclude those you politically disagree with. Are they saying only they can define who uses Scottish symbols?\u201d<\/p>\n The UK Government has a target to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029. But Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to \u201cbring forward\u201d that date.<\/p>\n The Home Office declined to comment on whether any discussions were going on with its Scottish asylum accommodation contractor, the Mears Group, to remove asylum seekers from the Cladhan Hotel.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the department said it was taking \u201curgent action\u201d to increase the rate of asylum decisions, having inherited a \u201csystem in chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n Mears and the Falkirk hotel owners Hannigan Hotels both declined to comment. Patriotic Alternative were approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anti-racism protesters claim Saltire flags are being used to “intimidate” migrants, as a Falkirk hotel becomes the scene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[2527,748,4884,712,10004,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-436128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-asylum-seekers","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-snp","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115231121760849775","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"FALKIRK,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_263930916.jpg\")
Anti-migrant protesters demonstrate outside the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk, Scotland. (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/falkirk-protests.png\")
Anti-asylum and anti-racism protesters outside Falkirk\u2019s Cladhan Hotel (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/kevin-alan-falkirk.png\")
Anti-asylum hotel protesters Kevin (right) and Alan Valentine (Photos : The i Paper)<\/p>\n![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SEI_266762100.jpg\")
Caption: Connor Graham, organiser of Save Our Future Save Our Kids Future (Photo: The i Paper)<\/p>\n