How Britain's Migrant Fury Sparked Civil Unrest

In 2024, violent anti-immigration protests erupt across Britain. A year later, and Britain is again grappling with a wave of similar fury. Hundreds of angry locals and hard-right activists have been taking to the streets and protesting outside asylum hotels in scenes that threaten widespread unrest.

Ireland, too, is experiencing a similar surge in anti-immigration violence. But why is this happening again? What makes the protests this year different? And who are the hard-right players driving them?

The latest series of protests ignited in Epping in July 2025. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the town's Bell Hotel, where he had been housed alongside other migrants.

The demonstration became violent as some of the protesters brawled with police and counterprotesters, leading to several arrests.

Anti-immigration protests have also been taking place in Ireland and Northern Ireland. A wave of violence swept through the town of Ballymena in June 2025 after two Romanian boys were accused of an attempted sexual assault. They deny charges.

Successive governments have ramped up rhetoric to solve the political crisis that asylum has become — but the technicalities of planning law could put a spanner in the works for Labour.

Appeal judges last week overturned a decision from the High Court in August that migrants should be removed from an Essex hotel, which threatened to scupper the government’s accommodation scheme and its statutory duty to house asylum seekers.

In the High Court, Mr Justice Eyre had granted a temporary injunction to Epping Forest district council to prevent the Bell Hotel from housing asylum seekers and gave its owner, Somani Hotels, until September 12 to rehouse its 138 residents.

00:00 Intro
00:41 What is going on?
02:22 Protests Spread to Ireland
03:13 Southport Riots
03:33 Hard-right Goes Mainstream
05:23 Misinformation
07:42 Politics

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