On Sunday, demonstrators converged on Portsmouth, England, after a small boat carrying 140 asylum seekers was intercepted as it approached the city's coast, triggering a large scale emergency response involving a helicopter, a plane and lifeboats.
\n\nThe incident is believed to mark the first time a small boat of this size carrying asylum seekers has been brought ashore in Portsmouth. Once the boat's occupants reached the maritime city, they were placed on coaches bound for Manston, near Ramsgate in Kent, the site where small boat arrivals are typically processed.
\n\nFootage shared on social media showed groups of people being ferried to shore by lifeboat, with several coaches waiting nearby. Protesters at the scene attempted to block those coaches from departing with the asylum seekers on board.
\n\nPortsmouth councillor George Madgwick, who leads Reform UK in Hampshire, posted on X that more than 100 migrant men had come ashore in Portsmouth that Sunday.
\n\nTypically, most small boats making the crossing are intercepted by Border Force and RNLI vessels on the English side of the Channel and brought to shore in Dover rather than Portsmouth.
\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said the government continues working to curb dangerous small boat crossings and reassert…
Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy
