LONDON (AP) — British police charged a 19-year-old man Sunday with violent disorder and assault in connection with a protest outside a hotel housing asylum-seekers in northwest England.
Police said an initially peaceful protest outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, near Liverpool, turned violent Friday when some demonstrators threw projectiles including lit fireworks at police and attacked a police van with hammers before setting it aflame.
Jarad Skeete, 19, was arrested alongside 14 others at the protest. Skeete, who was accused of violent disorder and assaulting an emergency services worker, was remanded in custody and due to appear in court Monday.
Police said the incident left an officer and two members of the public with slight injuries.
Lawmaker Lisa Nandy, from the opposition Labour Party, criticized the government for creating a “toxic” mix of anti-migrant rhetoric and poor accommodation provisions for asylum-seekers awaiting decisions on their applications.
“When you lay onto that a government that talks about things like an ‘invasion’ in relation to immigration, you have a perfect storm, a really toxic mix that is being created," Nandy told the BBC.
Development minister Andrew Mitchell said Britain's Conservative government condemned the violence and was trying hard to “stop the excessive use of hotels” to house migrants.
Britain takes in fewer asylum-seekers than some of its European neighbors, including France and Germany, but has seen a sharp increase in the number of people trying to reach the U.K. by crossing the English Channel in dinghies and other small boats.
More than 45,000 people reached Britain by that route in 2022. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said stopping the small boat crossings is one of his top priorities.
Meanwhile, scores of migrants have had to wait for months or longer for a decision on their asylum claims, with many stuck in hotels or other unsuitable temporary accommodation.
It wasn't the first time a migrant center was targeted for violence. In October, an attacker firebombed a processing center for new arrivals in the Channel port of Dover. Police said the man was motivated by far-right ideology. He killed himself after the attack.
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The Associated Press
