Rioters attack hotels housing asylum seekers and migrants in UK

The United Kingdom is grappling with its most severe social unrest in over a decade as rioters targeted hotels housing asylum seekers in northern England. Rioters set fire and broke into hotels used to shelter asylum seekers. Footage geolocated by CNN shows protesters on Sunday vandalizing and setting ablaze two Holiday Inns in northern England: one in Tamworth, which had previously been criticized by a local politician for housing asylum seekers, and another in Rotherham.

Hundreds of people gathered near a Holiday Inn Express hotel used to house asylum seekers near the northern town of Rotherham, throwing bricks at police and breaking several hotel windows, then setting bins on fire.

Footage from UK broadcaster Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers, as they sought to prevent the rioters, many of them masked, from entering the hotel.

“The behaviour we witnessed has been nothing short of disgusting. While it was a smaller number of those in attendance who chose to commit violence and destruction, those who simply stood on and watched remain absolutely complicit in this,” said Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield. “We have officers working hard, reviewing the considerable online imagery and footage of those involved, and they should expect us to be at their doors very soon.”

Staffordshire Police said that a hotel near Birmingham, which was known to have sheltered asylum seekers, was also targeted.

“A large group of individuals” have been “throwing projectiles, smashing windows, starting fires and targeting police” at the hotel in the town of Tamworth, with one officer injured, the statement said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned the weekend’s violent protests. Turning to the violent scenes in Rotherham, Starmer described “marauding gangs intent on law-breaking” and emphasized that violent rioters do not “represent our country.”

The violence erupted earlier last week, ostensibly in protest of stabbing attack in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged.

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