Rival anti-migrant and anti-racism protests face off outside a hotel housing migrants in London

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LONDON (AP) — Anti-immigrant and anti-racism demonstrators faced off in London on Saturday in the latest in a series of protests outside hotels housing asylum-seekers.

Several hundred protesters waving Union Jacks gathered outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in central London, calling for it to be closed as housing for migrants. Chants including “Scum” and “Britain is full” were directed at the hotel.

Police separated the demonstrators from a larger group of counter-protesters chanting “refugees are welcome here,” as people inside the hotel watched from windows.

Protests against migrants have taken place in recent weeks in Epping, a town on the outskirts of London where an asylum-seeker was accused of sexual assault, and in a smattering of other towns in England.

Protesters say they are concerned about the safety risk posed by the migrants, many of them young men who have recently arrived in Britain in dinghies across the English Channel.

The demonstrations have drawn local people, but have also been attended, and in some cases organized, by far-right groups.

The protests come a year after several days of anti-immigrant rioting across England and Northern Ireland. Crowds in more than two dozen towns attacked hotels housing migrants, as well as mosques, police stations and a library. Some rioters targeted non-white people and threw bricks and fireworks at police.

The summer 2024 violence was sparked when three girls were stabbed to death at a summer dance class in the town of Southport, and online misinformation identified the attacker as a recently arrived migrant. In fact, killer Axel Rudakubana was a British-born 17-year-old.

Experts and community groups warn that the mix of anger, fear, misinformation and political agitating that fueled that violence could erupt again, though protests this summer have been small and largely peaceful.