Residents in Fenland, a district in Cambridgeshire, eastern England are protesting plans to accommodate asylum-seekers as the district council challenges both the proposed government relocation plan.

About 200 demonstrators marched through Leverington, a village within Fenland, on Sunday ( October 11), according to the BBC. Protesters reportedly gathered near Roman Court, a former sheltered housing complex, carrying signs opposing asylum accommodation and a flag bearing the name "Patriots of Wisbech." According to local newspapers, the protest was led by local Reform Councilor Chris Tirrell.

The Leverington site has been identified as part of the government's nationwide plan to move asylum seekers out of hotel and short-term accommodation elsewhere in the country, into longer-term "dispersal accommodation."

A proposal is reportedly being considered for 26 bedspaces for asylum seeking mothers and their babies. However, a copy of the Fenland District Council objection letter outlines asylum accommodation for around 205 people across the district.

"The Council is also seriously concerned by reference in your letter of an allocation of 205 in the 'Fenland Asylum Accommodation Plan.' The Council wholly reject that number as completely arbitrary and unreasonable for a District with the make-up of population and serious concerns regarding public safety and we demand that this figure is withdrawn by the Home Office," the objection letter reads. 

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No capacity to support vulnerable residents

The Fenland District Council objection letter, dated October 7, argues that Leverington and nearby Wisbech lacks local services and capacity to support additional vulnerable residents safely. The letter cites limited public transport, deprivation, pressure on housing and existing concerns about crime, antisocial behavior and exploitation.

The council says 1,344 people are waiting on its housing register and argues that the proposal could intensify local tensions. The outlined objections also include concerns for the safety of asylum seekers. The letter records threatening online comments directed at the building and potential occupants, alongside evidence of existing criminal exploitation in the area.

The BBC reports that Home Office data recorded three supported asylum seekers in Fenland at the end of June 2026, all receiving subsistence-only support, without Home Office accommodation.

In an email to InfoMigrants, a Home Office spokesperson said, "The government is closing every asylum hotel, saving taxpayers over 1 billion British pounds (1.18 billion euros) on asylum support since the election. We are working to fairly house asylum seekers across the country, engaging with local authorities to reduce the impact on communities."

Additionally, the Home Office said that they do not comment on individual sites for the safety of staff and residents. However, they engage closely with the relevant local authority and key partners to discuss the potential use and further details of any proposed site.

Numbers provided by the Home Office indicate that numbers in asylum hotels have been slashed to 16,000 – down 50 percent in the last year. There has also been a 12 percent decrease in those receiving asylum support in the past year.

Growing anti-migrant protests

The opposition in Fenland comes in the wake of wider and growing anti-migrant protests and acts of vandalism believed to be targeting migrants across England.

News reports indicate that a House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) in Salford, Manchester was targeted and vandalized multiple times. The windows were reportedly smashed and the entrance damaged. Further destruction was reported over successive nights. The attacks are said to be linked to a wider campaign against so-called "migrant HMOs," reported the Turkish Anadolu Agency, which provided these pictures.

Police are investigating the criminal damage, while the council has already removed some of the banners and pushed back on misinformation around HMOs.Half a dozen houses have also had windows smashed over the past week and been vandalized. People living on this Salford estate say they have been left 'terrified.'

Meanwhile, along the southern coast of England. Last week (October 5), protesters gathered in the town of Gosport. A total of 149 migrants were rescued during an operation in the English Channel and brought to safety to the town of Gosport on the southern coast of Britain, located next to Portsmouth.

The town of Gosport is located around 180 kilometers away from Dover, which is the typical landing site of people rescued at sea in the English Channel.

A string of protests opposing the landing of migrant boats crossing the English Channel have erupted in recent weeks, raising tensions in the local community and straining security forces.

"No sites across the southern coastline of Britain should be used as 'landing sites'. We are not equipped and we do not have the resources to keep policing this," Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones said in the wake of the protests in her area.

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Reform party threatens to suspend asylum

Britain's right-wing Reform party is busy trying to capitalize on the anti-migrant sentiment in a bid to regain its popularity. Although for much of the last couple of years, its anti-migrant stance appeared to be helping it hold top place in opinion polls, British newspapers on Tuesday (October 13), including the Independent, reported that it has now slipped to third place in opinion polls, behind both Labour and the Conservatives, following a round of party conferences.

In a YouGov poll, conducted for the Times newspaper, pollsters said that Labour led but had dropped a little in popularity to 24 points. The Conservative party came next on 23 points and Reform had dropped a point to coming in third with 21 points. This noted YouGov was its lowest poll rating since the 2024 general election, when Labour (then under Prime Minister Keir Starmer) took power.

Nevertheless, there is pressure on the current Labour government, now under Prime Minister Andy Burnham's leadership, to demonstrate that its migration policies are working. In an attempt to try and maintain that pressure, Reform's leader Nigel Farage, alongside his Home Affairs spokesperson Zia Yusum, held a press conference in Kent on October 12 in the town of Hythe.

Standing next to a model of an inflatable boat, similar to those used by smugglers to bring migrants across the Channel, Farage and Yusum presented their latest policy document, "ending the asylum scam, puttin British people first." They also pledged that if elected at the next general election, they would suspend asylum claims for a full parliamentary term, or up to five years.

This kind of claim would be difficult to execute under existing international laws and treaties, to which Britain is signed. Nevertheless, Reform stated that if they won power, all new asylum applications would be rejected and existing applications voided, with all claimants marked for deportation, reported the BBC. Reform added that no grants of humanitarian protection or refugee status would be made, while legal refugee routes and resettlement schemes would end.

Reform said it would also scrap the asylum tribunal system and deport 90,000 people currently with appeal cases, with home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf telling journalists "Britain is full."

Labour branded the proposals a "clear sign of desperation and weakness," reported the BBC and the Refugee Council added they believed them to be "unworkable".

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