‘Our country’s ruined’: Protesters on why they oppose asylum hotels

Published

4 weeks ago

August 29, 2025

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“It’s an invasion,” Dinah Bentley tells me, standing next to a cardboard cut-out of Nigel Farage.

The 78-year-old retired teacher says she “doesn’t laud” the Reform MP, whose grinning likeness is a permanent fixture in her West Yorkshire conservatory, but he “says what I believe”.

“Everybody talks about migration, but our country’s ruined,” Dinah adds. “They’ve ruined it.”

The “they” in her mind? People who have crossed into the UK on small boats.

We have seen asylum hotel protests intensify over the summer and wanted to speak to the people who’ve joined them.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll speak with counter-protesters too, but today, we meet Dinah, a grandmother of two who has joined those calling on asylum hotels to close.

She was, like many of the protesters we met, initially sceptical to speak to a journalist.

Dinah says she “doesn’t watch mainstream news” because of “media lies” over Brexit.

Instead, she says she gets her news from social media.

It was on social media that Dinah learnt about a protest being organised outside a hotel in Wakefield, which has housed asylum seekers for several years.

It was the first migration-related protest she had ever attended.

“We’ve put up with so much for so long and I think ordinary people now, they’ve decided it’s no good sitting, doing nothing,” Dinah says.

After reading about a male asylum seeker being charged with a sexual assault in Epping, she says she is “fearful” for her granddaughters’ safety.

“They’re undocumented,” she says, referring to those who have arrived in the UK on small boats.

“We know nothing about them. We don’t know where they are wandering the streets. It’s not right, is it?”

She’s also angry about the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels.

I ask Dinah what she thinks about the government plan to close asylum hotels, stop illegal crossings and deport people who do not have a legal right to remain.

“It’s all talk, all talk”, she says. “I don’t believe them.”

“I would be happy if the Navy went into the Channel, we’re an island for God’s sake, and stopped the boats.

“That would make me over the moon.”

Dinah tells us people used to be “afraid” of saying what they really thought about migration.

No more, she says.

The ‘migrant watch’ group

On the other side of Wakefield, we meet 47-year-old James Crashley.

He’s also been to the local asylum hotel protests.

An army veteran and former policeman, James says he does not think asylum seekers should be housed in hotels or houses of multiple occupancy.

“I’ve served in Kosovo and in Iraq, within the British Army,” he says. “And if I can be housed in a tent for six months, then they can too.”

The prime minister has pledged to end the “costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers in this parliament” – which would be 2029, if not earlier.

James has, by his own admission, become somewhat notorious in his local area for trying to set up what he’s called a “community watch”.

He says the police are “very good at dealing with serious crime” but believes “they seem to forget that day-to-day crime exists”.

Called “5 Town Migrant Watch” and advertised by him on social media, James says the volunteer group will support the Wakefield hotel protests and act as a “gentle presence” in public areas to tackle “all anti-social behaviour”.

But it will focus on “illegal migrant men” who James describes as having “conflicting traditions and cultures”.

“They come from cultures that aren’t as civilised as ours,” he says. “They don’t seem to adhere to our laws.

“And because of the cultural differences, as in the sexual assaults on children and women, they believe that’s fine in their cultures. Well, it’s not here.”

I say to James that no culture accepts sexual assaults on women and children are “fine”, a point he says he “accepts”.

But he claims that, by definition, people have already “broken the law” when they arrive on small boats in the first place.

James’ group has attracted hundreds of supporters online, but also criticism from people who believe the group – and James himself – is not only divisive but dangerous.

James admits he has previously had a police caution for a public order offence, not related to the community watch, but stresses this group “isn’t vigilantism”.

“It’s a peaceful movement,” he says. “But if needs be, we’ll stand our ground and will prevent crime. We’re not allowed to commit crime.”

‘People are angry’

A few days later, we meet Dinah again outside the Cedar Court Hotel in Wakefield.

Protesters line the road, waving Union and St George’s flags. Some are shouting “send them back” and “stop the boats”.

Groups of counter-protesters are there too, chanting “Nazi scum” over the police barricade.

I ask Dinah how that feels.

“I think it’s hilarious,” she says. “I know what I am, I don’t value their opinion, so I couldn’t care less what they call me.”

But standing next to Dinah, also waving a Union flag, is Sharon.

She says she’s “a little bit frightened being here” and feels it’s unfair to be put in that position just “to try and get the government to listen to you”.

She added: “I’m a 60-year-old mum. I work 40 hours a week. And nobody gives me anything free. You just want fairness.”

In the crowd, we find James.

I ask him what he thinks about the government plan to appeal a court ruling to shut the asylum hotel in Epping.

“Of course they were going to try and block it,” he tells me.

“The smiles here and the good attitude and the positivity is masking the anger of what’s happened to the English.

“People are angry. People know that once they’re out of here,” he says, gesturing at the hotel behind us, “they’re going to be put in the community”.

“What happens then, who knows?”

Dinah and James are among thousands of protesters who share a sense of being ignored by the government – leaving an overwhelming sense of pressure and uncertainty about what will happen next.

UK

Inside the courts where migrants appeal removal from Britain – amid clamour to leave ECHR

Published

9 mins ago

September 27, 2025

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Inside the courts where migrants appeal removal from Britain - amid clamour to leave ECHR

How often do migrants successfully fight their removal from Britain on the basis of their human rights?

The clamour from the right for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights has been growing – even some high-profile Labour figures say it needs reform.

So, I’ve come to an immigration appeal court – unannounced – to find out how it is used by migrants and their lawyers here.

Decisions delayed, outcomes unpublished

I get to the fourth floor of a large court building in Birmingham.

The first case I’m ushered into to see is a 38-year-old Nigerian man. He came on a student visa – but that ran out.

Just before he did, he put in a claim to stay on the basis of his relationship with a woman, who is originally from Barbados but has lived and worked in Britain since 2015.

The judge, who will decide their fate, dials in via video link. He hears the man’s partner has a 17-year-old daughter.

She lives with her biological father, but the couple insist she is so close to the Nigerian man she calls him “Dad”. This is an appeal being made under Article 8 of the ECHR – the right to a family life.

The following day, it’s a different judge – this time he’s here in person.

The man in front of him is appealing against deportation to Kenya. He came to the UK as a baby with his mother and siblings.

As a teenager, he was jailed for almost 10 years for stabbing a man, causing serious injuries.

It emerges that his case is also based on Article 8 of the ECHR. Since leaving prison, he’s fathered a child who has just turned two.

There are arguments made too under Article 3 of the ECHR – which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment – due to the man being diagnosed with “generalised anxiety” and depression.

It will be a few weeks before decisions are made on these cases – and the results won’t be published by the court.

I leave, thinking how opaque the process feels.

It’s also easy to see why some politicians are pointing to the ECHR – a treaty signed after the Second World War to protect the rights of everyone in the Council of Europe – as a barrier to removing more migrants.

Is the ECHR really a barrier to deportation?

“I think there’s a strong kind of political dynamic there which has led to, in some ways, you might say, a kind of scapegoating of the European Convention,” says Alice Donald, Professor of Human Rights law at Middlesex University, London.

She’s not convinced that withdrawal from ECHR would make a big difference to the number of people the UK is able to remove or deport.

“The honest answer is we don’t know, we don’t have enough data to say that,” she says.

“The data that we do have, for example, in relation to the number of human rights appeals against deportation by foreign national offenders, which has been very much in the news this year, suggests that it would really make only a marginal difference.”

Those figures, published by the Home Office, reveal that between April 2008 and June 2021, 21,521 foreign nationals due to be deported because of crimes they’d committed appealed, and 2,392 were successful on human rights grounds only. That’s around 181 on average per year.

We don’t have figures for how many other types of immigrants are allowed to stay on the basis of human rights. Small boat migrants who claim asylum would usually rely on another convention.

“In terms of asylum claims, it is governed by the 1951 Refugee Convention as a different treaty,” Prof Donald explains.

“There is, of course, overlapping protection with the prohibition of torture in the European Convention… so if the Refugee Convention were still in place, then of course people seeking asylum would rely on that.”

She also believes there have been “a number of erroneous stories or exaggerated stories”.

Debunking the chicken nugget myth

In February 2025, it was widely reported that an Albanian criminal’s deportation was halted over his son’s dislike of foreign chicken nuggets.

“What actually happened in that case is that it went to the upper tribunal (second-tier immigration appeal court) which ordered that he could be deported. And also specifically said that the evidence to do with chicken nuggets was nowhere near the level required,” Prof Donald says.

What leaving the ECHR would mean

Withdrawal from the ECHR would mean the guarantees it provides would be removed for everyone in the UK, not just migrants.

It not only protects the rights to life, liberty, fair trial and freedom of expression among others, but also prohibits torture, slavery and discrimination.

Pulling out of the treaty could also breach the Belfast Good Friday Agreement – though some say such an outcome is avoidable.

However, in a country where immigration is the top issue of concern for voters, there are some who now think that is a price worth paying.

UK

King and Queen set to meet Pope Leo in Vatican state visit

Published

9 mins ago

September 27, 2025

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King and Queen set to meet Pope Leo in Vatican state visit

The King and Queen will meet the new Pope during a state visit to Vatican City next month.

The couple will join Leo XIV, who was elected pope earlier this year after the death of Pope Francis, in late October to celebrate the 2025 jubilee year, Buckingham Palace said.

The Catholic Church typically marks a papal jubilee every 25 years.

Charles and Camilla‘s visit is expected to celebrate the ecumenical work by the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the Jubilee year’s theme of walking together as “Pilgrims of Hope”.

The King is Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a role which dates back to Henry VIII, who named himself Supreme Head of the Church of England after he was excommunicated by Pope Paul III and broke from the Catholic Church in the 16th century to marry Anne Boleyn.

State visit has diplomatic and spiritual significance

Postponed from the Italian state visit earlier this year, the King’s invitation to the Holy See has both diplomatic and spiritual significance.

It symbolises a shared desire from the King and Pope Leo to overcome denominational divisions of the past.

The King has a deep respect for religious diversity. Five hundred years ago, it was another Pope Leo – Leo X – who gave Henry VIII the title Defender of the Faith.

King Charles has long reflected on the meaning of this title within our modern, multi-faith and increasingly secular society.

This has been a year of change for many Christians. Very soon, a new Archbishop of Canterbury will be announced. A protracted process compared with the two-day conclave in Rome. As the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the King will approve the appointment.

The King’s recent presence at Westminster Cathedral, attending the requiem mass of the Catholic Duchess of Kent, was seen as an important moment of Christian unity.

This state visit will be another example of the continued commitment between the Church of England and the Catholic Church.

The King and Queen had a meeting with Pope Francis just 12 days before he died.

Their historic state visit to the Vatican in early April was cancelled due to the then-pontiff’s poor health, but they managed to visit him privately during their trip to Italy.

The meeting with Francis, in what would be the final weeks of his life, was arranged at the last minute and took place on their 20th wedding anniversary on 9 April, with the pontiff wanting to personally wish them a happy anniversary.

In an official message released following the news of Francis’s death on 21 April, the King said he and the Queen were “most deeply saddened”.

In May, Charles sent a private message to Pope Leo XIV congratulating him on his election, Buckingham Palace said.

UK

Samaritans warned of volunteer exodus if plans to close branches go ahead

Published

3 hours ago

September 27, 2025

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Samaritans warned of volunteer exodus if plans to close branches go ahead

Call handlers at the mental health helpline Samaritans are warning of a mass exodus of volunteers after the charity announced plans to close branches.

The ‘volunteer listeners’ say a shortage of people taking calls will lead to longer wait times to have them answered.

In July, Samaritans chief executive Julie Bentley said it was no longer sustainable to have so many branches.

In a video message to staff, seen by Sky News, she said: “Many of the branches we have today came into existence at a time when Samaritans was set up as a local service, providing separate local numbers. But that hasn’t been the case for some time.

“Our service today doesn’t need the number of buildings we currently have.”

Colm Martin, a volunteer listener for five years, said the announcement came “out of the blue”.

“We cannot make sense of it. This is supposed to be about improving a service and we can’t understand how closing half of all of the branches will improve the service or encourage more volunteers to come forward.”

Mr Martin says he thinks Samaritans will lose volunteers.

“Not because they want to leave, but because they’re forced out, because there isn’t a branch local to them that they can go to,” he said.

Last year, three million people called the Samaritans in need of support. Its website reads “every life lost to suicide is a tragedy”.

About 23,000 trained volunteers work with the charity to listen and provide fast support to those experiencing suicidal thoughts as well as other mental health issues.

Ms Bentley told Sky News: “The improvements we’re proposing would mean callers getting through to Samaritans quicker while making it easier for anyone to join our amazing group of volunteers, regardless of their circumstances or busy lifestyles.

“Samaritans will continue to be there for those struggling to cope across the UK and Republic of Ireland, day and night, 365 days a year.”

Surbiton-based Angela remembers calling Samaritans for help 40 years ago when her father was dying of cancer.

“Whenever I reached out to any family member, they’d say ‘oh come on, you’re strong, you know what you’re doing. You’re a nurse’, she said.

“One night, I just reached an emotional limit. It was about two o’clock in the morning, and I thought ‘I’m going to burst here’.”

Angela says she cannot recall how long the call lasted but says it was answered quickly.

“He hardly spoke, he just let me empty all my thoughts and he listened,” she said. “That was so powerful to have someone just listening and not interrupting, not dismissing my feelings.”

The charity is set to vote on the proposed changes, which would take place over the next seven to 10 years, this weekend, although in Ireland the consultation process is not due to start until 2027.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.

Alternatively, you can call Mind’s support line on 0300 102 1234, or NHS on 111.