"Police resources are being stretched" - Plea for cash to pay for the impact of anti-migrant protests on police in Hampshire
Police resources are being stretched as a result of the repeated anti-migrant protests in Hampshire - with no extra government cash to help with the costs.
Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones has said that the anti-migrant and counter demonstrations are stretching ‘limited police resources’, and taking officers away from other duties.
It follows a series of repeated protests across the county centring around hotels which are being used to provide temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, as well as sites where the Home Office had been looking to provide accommodation such as Waterlooville.
PCC Donna Jones has called on the government to give the police extra cash to deal with the impact of the protests to pay for extra officers, with police unable to carry out other parts of the job because they are instead policing the protests.
She said: “Any counter and pro demonstrations stretch already limited police resources.
“The Home Office decides where asylum seekers are housed but, so far, has failed to provide the funding needed to manage such protests.
“It is therefore impossible to expect the Constabulary to police demonstrations and carry out its day-to-day core function to the best of its ability with no additional support.”
It comes after a recent decision by the High Court to grant a temporary injunction to prevent the use of a ‘migrant hotel’ in Essex after it heard about the impact on the police of unrest in the community, with repeated protests in the area.
PCC Jones said that she hoped that as a result the government would ‘think twice’ about where migrants were housed to reduce community unrest which would then put a strain on the police as a result.
She said: “The High Court decision to grant a district council a temporary injunction to block asylum seekers from lodging at a hotel in Essex may make the Home Office think twice about how it houses them going forward – reducing potential community unrest and the subsequent strain on policing.”
Meanwhile Reform UK has today unveiled its plan to deal with the number of people coming to the UK on small boats to claim asylum.
Under the plan, people would be arrested on arrival, detained at unnamed disused RAF bases and, if agreements were reached, returned to their countries of origin. This includes Afghanistan and Eritrea, where a significant number of people on small boats come from.
As previously reported by The News, there were 63 detentions at Portsmouth Port from February 1 2024 to January 31 2025. Of those, 12 were unaccompanied children aged ten and over, 11 of which were from Sudan.