Sawt Falasteen - 'Volatile': Londoners and asylum seekers on edge due to protests

"I feel unsafe because the people, they really think we are (the) enemy," an asylum seeker living in the Thistle Barbican Hotel told AFP.

The man, who is from an African country and wished to remain anonymous, has been at the hotel for around two years while his asylum claim is processed.

But "in the last two months, people have changed", he said, describing facing increased hostility as demonstrations were held against the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

They followed the arrest and conviction of an asylum seeker from Ethiopia living in a hotel in Epping, northeast of London, for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman.

"People think we are in five-star hotels... in fact, we are kind of prisoners," the asylum seeker said, adding that their movements had become more restricted since the protests.

He felt some protesters think "we are not equal with them as humans".

"I'm an asylum seeker. I'm not here to go after kids. I'm not here to go after women. I'm here to seek protection," he said.

Mo Naeimi, a 29-year-old Iranian refugee who previously lived in the Barbican hotel and now works with a charity helping asylum seekers, told AFP the people there now "are just so scared".

- St George's flags -

Outside the hotel, protesters have painted surfaces with the colours of the St George's flag.

The trend of flying English and British flags has emerged across England, in a show of patriotism but also anti-immigration sentiment spearheaded in part by far-right figures.

A worker in a small business opposite the Barbican hotel has hung the red-and-white England flag in the store window.

The 45-year-old of Pakistani origin, in London for two decades, said he displayed it to protect the business and its immigrant workers from protesters.

The worker, who wanted to remain anonymous for safety reasons, told AFP he "respects" the flag but noted the asylum seekers have posed "no problems".

"I'm not white, of course I feel scared. They can see my skin colour," he said, pinching his arms.

"One day they could come here and smash the windows, and attack us instead."

A few miles east, London's bustling Canary Wharf financial hub has seen similar protests after the local council said in July that asylum seekers would be housed at a hotel there.

It came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government struggles to stop record numbers of migrant-packed small boats crossing the Channel, and to house the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who arrive aboard them.

When Britt-Marie Monks, a 43-year-old business owner and mother who lives near Canary Wharf's Britannia Hotel, learned it was going to house asylum seekers "my heart dropped", she told AFP.

- 'Too close to home' -

Monks said she was wary of male migrants being housed there, as well as the protesters it was attracting.

She now avoids the road alongside the hotel and is apprehensive and uncertain about the situation.

"I've not seen (such protests) in the 44 years of living in London... It's too close to home now," she added.

Former local councillor Andrew Woods said while sections of the protests had been peaceful, the hotel had "divided" the local community.

"Far and away it's the worst issue that's affected this area," said Woods, who runs the neighbourhood's Facebook group.

Last month, some demonstrators marched through the financial hub's high-end shopping centre. A police officer was punched in the face and four people were arrested in ensuing scuffles.

"This is the last place I would expect it," Ziaur Rahman, a 49-year-old British IT professional who lives and works part-time in Canary Wharf, told AFP.

"I'd feel threatened if I was here, because I would be maybe one of the people that they think is an asylum seeker."

Locals said they want the government to prioritise tackling problems within the community before housing asylum seekers there.

But Naeimi fears asylum seekers being scapegoated.

"The cost (of living) has increased, and the pressure easily can be taken from the government and put the blame on asylum seekers," he said.

Notorious far-right agitator Tommy Robinson is organising what he calls "the UK's biggest free speech festival" in London on Saturday, and asylum seeker hotels could be targeted again in offshoot protests.

"It's going to just escalate," Monks predicted. "It just feels very volatile around here... The tension is in the air."

H.Nasr--SF-PST