The group sprinted across Eastney Beach and entered the water yesterday afternoon, chanting “stop the boats” and “enough is enough” at the moment migrants arrived on a UK Coastguard vessel.
Clips posted online later showed asylum seekers being ushered off lifeboats to shore, where they were met by several buses which took them to a processing centre in Kent.
Hundreds of demonstrators blocked the road to stop coachloads of new arrivals leaving. After being dispersed by riot police, some got into cars and followed the buses on their journey to Kent.
It is the second major UK anti-migrant protest in two days after the Port of Dover was shut down on Saturday.
More than 500 protesters gathered on the Hampshire coastline and dozens entered the sea four miles from Britain’s Royal Navy headquarters to demand the asylum seekers be returned to France.
The mega-dinghy had set off from the Baie de Seine in Normandy – a 180-mile drive from Calais – suggesting people smugglers are expanding their launch points along the French coast to evade enforcement efforts.
But rather than intervene, the French coastguard shadowed the vessel for ten hours, claiming it was too dangerous because of the number of people on board.
British lifeboats, supported by a helicopter and a plane, then took over and brought the migrants to the UK.
Following calls to action on social media, protesters flocked to the coast and spent at least five hours on the beach and in the water...<<<Read More>>>...