Police stood guard at the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf today (August 24) after the Government set out plans for a fast-track appeals process to speed up the removal of people with no right to be in the UK.
Ministers hope the overhaul of the asylum appeal process will make it easier to get people out of hotels and on planes out of the UK.
In Canary Wharf, police officers stood at the entrance to the Britannia Hotel while security guards could also be seen standing behind full length barriers that blocked off the entrance way.
About 20 protesters stood quietly on the other side of the road with Union flags propped up against a fence.
A woman carried a homemade banner which read: “Tower Hamlets council house homeless Brits first” which had a St George’s flag drawn on it.
Another banner read: “Enough is enough protect our women and girls.”
Meanwhile a group of protesters, some draped in the St George’s Cross, gathered outside the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn in Birmingham.
It comes after protests on Saturday across the UK resulted in at least 15 arrests.
Official figures released earlier this month showed a total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
The record level of applications comes as the backlog of people waiting for an initial decision on their claims dropped to 90,812 at the end of June.
There were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels by the end of the same month.
Labour has promised to end the use of the sites by 2029.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said “completely unacceptable” delays in the appeals process left failed asylum seekers in the system for years.
The proposed new system would see independent adjudicators, rather than judges, deal with appeals over asylum decisions.
There are about 51,000 asylum appeals waiting to be heard, taking on average more than a year to reach a decision.
As measures have been put in place to speed up initial decisions, court delays over appeals are now thought to be the biggest cause of pressure in the asylum accommodation system.
The Home Secretary said the overhaul would result in a system which is “swift, fair and independent, with high standards in place”.
She said: “We inherited an asylum system in complete chaos with a soaring backlog of asylum cases and a broken appeals system with thousands of people in the system for years on end.
“That is why we are taking practical steps to fix the foundations and restore control and order to the system.
“We are determined to substantially reduce the number of people in the asylum system as part of our plan to end asylum hotels.
“Already since the election we have reduced the backlog of people waiting for initial decisions by 24% and increased failed asylum returns by 30%.
“But we cannot carry on with these completely unacceptable delays in appeals as a result of the system we have inherited which mean that failed asylum seekers stay in the system for years on end at huge cost to the taxpayer.”
