Juno News - October 31, 2025Inside England’s migrant hotel protests
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
177.41614
Summary
Melanie Bennett visits a protest in Norwich where anti-migrant protesters are demonstrating against the introduction of a 'sanctuary city' for migrants. She talks to the protesters and tries to find out why they are angry about it.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
I'm Melanie Bennett, and for True North, I'm in England. I'm in Norwich, which for a long time
00:00:15.920
was Britain's second city. It's an ancient city in what used to be the ancient kingdom of East
00:00:23.060
Anglia, now Norfolk, Suffolk, and so on and so forth. So wealthy, in fact, that in 866, the great
00:00:30.000
heathen army, the Vikings, raided and took over, and it was a whole kerfuffle, and I think the city
00:00:36.380
itself didn't really become a city until 1096, but it's old. It has lots of old features, like here.
00:00:43.360
There's a feel of aristocracy in the countryside, and it is not the kind of place where you would
00:00:48.800
expect huge disruptions. In fact, it's kind of boring most of the time. So why am I here? I
00:00:54.480
found out that Norwich became a sanctuary city for migrants, and that's causing a lot of tension
00:00:59.520
with the locals. In actually my old neighborhood, where my son went to school in Bothorp, Thorpe
00:01:06.440
showing the Viking past of this area, there have been protests at a hotel, anti-migrant
00:01:12.380
protests, and I want to go talk to them today, and I want to go find out what's going on and
00:01:26.900
I have come to join the anti-migrant protesters in Bothorp in Norwich, which is a suburb just
00:01:33.420
outside of Norwich. A lot of families, a lot of pensioners, things like that. And this is
00:01:38.300
the local pub in basically Chapel Break. This is the neighborhood my son went to school, so
00:01:42.600
this is a bit surreal for me. Everybody's gathering. They've got some flags going on.
00:01:46.880
I was just talking to some protesters, and they told me that there's been some issues
00:01:51.700
with crime, increasing crime in this area. And I don't remember this area having a lot
00:01:54.880
of crime when I lived here. They're very concerned about that. Not just at the hotel, but generally
00:01:59.880
in the area. So it looks like everybody is meeting up at the Norwich pub. So we have a few
00:02:05.640
flags out. There's some police in the background just doing their thing. I'm going to go talk to
00:02:10.880
these people and find out what's going on. I heard there were some issues at the hotel
00:02:15.700
with... There has been, yes. Sexual, you know, to do with sex crimes, you know, rape. And a lot
00:02:25.880
of them hang around the schools taking pictures. As I said, I actually witnessed that over one
00:02:31.880
of one of the local schools last week. Where it gets a little bit hard to swallow as well
00:02:37.300
is that a lot of these schools that are encouraging the children to become more involved with the
00:02:45.120
migrants. And I mean that literally. They're saying, the migrants aren't here to hurt you.
00:02:50.560
You know, they're okay. They're just seeking, you know, asylum or, you know, they're refugees
00:02:56.800
from another country where there's lots of trouble. And... So would you say that's teaching
00:03:00.260
them to reduce their risk tolerance? Yes, I would. But the trouble is, I was
00:03:03.420
always brought up when I was a child that you didn't talk to strangers and things like that.
00:03:08.140
You don't do that. You never did that. You know, especially, even more so when it comes
00:03:13.720
to foreign people. You know they're from a different country. It's always they're from
00:03:16.960
a different country. And especially if they're hanging around in groups and stuff. So you
00:03:21.600
don't get... You know, they shouldn't be teaching them that they aren't of any risk to them.
00:03:26.640
Yeah. Because obviously they are. And this is what I don't understand about the so-called
00:03:32.520
far left. They seem to be in denial of a lot. Generally speaking, it's the far left people
00:03:39.460
who antagonise us because they know we're under strict, you know, we've got to behave.
00:03:45.800
Mr. Starmer, he seems to think, and he's at it again this morning on the news, he said he's
00:03:52.480
now going to take steps to deal with the far right people in this country. And I'm thinking,
00:03:59.480
what's that all about again? It's a threat. It's a threat. Yeah. Normal mums and dads who
00:04:03.480
are worried about their children and stuff like that. And the society they're growing
00:04:07.560
up in. And that, you know, he's coming out with stuff like that. We aren't doing any wrong.
00:04:12.360
The left... Going back to your question about whether the police... They are, they're biased.
00:04:17.360
Biased towards the left wing. I saw it at the London March the other week.
00:04:21.360
The Tommy Rollers... Is that the Unite the Kingdom?
00:04:23.360
Yes. The Unite... Yeah. But what they tend to do, they tend to turn their shields and that
00:04:28.360
towards us and stand like we are now with the shields. And then the left wing stand over
00:04:35.360
there and they're not hassling them at all. And not that I'm saying they should, but I
00:04:39.360
mean they should treat everybody the same. I shall keep coming to these and hopefully
00:04:43.360
one day something will change. But I still... I still... I don't approve of being dubbed,
00:04:52.360
you know, far right, racist, fascist is another one they call fascist, racist. You know, I'm
00:05:00.360
all for, I'm all for legal migration. I don't, I've never had anything, you know, but what
00:05:05.360
they've, what they've done, they've let everything get out of hand. It's out of control.
00:05:09.360
We're going to do the march soon. Let's get Norwich back on the map, ladies and gentlemen.
00:05:25.360
You know, it's really sad. I keep having conversations with people and they tell me how
00:05:28.360
how devastated they are. They tell me these stories about how there's so much tension in
00:05:34.360
the UK. I just heard this man tell me how, you know, there was a bit of violence this
00:05:39.360
week, but he was explaining there hasn't been violence, but they feel the sense of escalating
00:05:44.360
violence and the police don't seem to really be helping. But he was explaining what I felt
00:05:50.360
was a tinderbox of tension. The way that they separated the protesters, the left, I guess,
00:05:56.360
and the right completely separated. They cannot come into contact. He said, that's new as
00:06:00.360
well. So I guess the police are even sensing this tension.
00:06:03.360
This is the hotel. From what I gather, this was a reasonably nice hotel that now looks completely
00:06:20.360
abandoned and derelict. So this is separating two sides of the protest. On the other side
00:06:26.360
is a lot of colourful flags and I can't tell what they're representing. Very different to Canada.
00:06:33.360
There's no contact at all between these two sides. I'll just show you. Even here with the
00:06:40.360
protesters, they're on the side of the road and they're also on the other side of the road.
00:06:43.360
There's people honking, but it doesn't feel like a protest in the same way. So you don't
00:06:48.360
have those clashes like you do in Canada and Tifa style at all. They are getting a reasonable
00:07:02.360
Nope. Nobody wants to talk on camera. They're all too afraid, even though they're all standing
00:07:06.360
here. Nobody wants to give me an interview, even though they completely welcomed me, which
00:07:09.360
is great. And I can't talk to the people on the other side with all of the fancy flags.
00:07:14.360
Apparently, they said they recognize me as a right wing journalist. That's what the policeman
00:07:20.360
told me. So I can't go talk to them. And we have to blur faces. So I'm hiding whatever's going on. I would have
00:07:24.360
liked to talk to them because they've got music. They sound like they're having fun. I genuinely
00:07:28.360
wanted to understand their perspective, their point of view. But I guess we're not going to
00:07:31.360
hear that today. I've been no-no'd. I am wearing my badge. But anyway, so that's sad. Unfortunately,
00:07:39.360
I won't be able to get to speak to them. So let's go talk to the other guys.
00:07:43.360
Save our kids! Save our kids! Save our kids! Save our kids! Save our kids! Save our kids!
00:07:49.360
Save our kids! Like the migrants that come in the country. You know, just going around
00:07:56.360
following kids and stuff. Has that happened here? Yeah, it's happened right here. It's
00:08:01.360
happened quite a lot, to be honest. There's a part just next door, did that? Yeah, that's happened
00:08:05.360
over there and all. There's a lot of it going on. So we're just trying to make a stand, really.
00:08:10.360
Us getting beyond a joke, so. Do you have kids? I've got three. And they're petrified
00:08:15.360
they're coming out because of these. So I'm here as a dad. What did they learn in school?
00:08:22.360
They learn everything. But then they're teaching them about everything about this. You know what
00:08:26.360
I mean? I had assembly the other day saying about that us lot wouldn't have anything if
00:08:31.360
it weren't for these being there. Like, come on, that's not true. When I was a young man, we would never need to put flags on lampposts,
00:08:39.360
because everybody knew they were English, or if they weren't English, they were proud to live in England,
00:08:46.360
and grateful to live in England. Now we have a society that's building that there are communities that literally
00:08:56.360
hate this country and have loyalty to another country or other countries around the world.
00:09:03.360
That's not safe for our women and girls and children to go into the parks because of being molested by people
00:09:13.360
who don't share our values. They have a value system that says women are less than men.
00:09:20.360
I'm homeless right now. I'm English, homeless for 10 years, got a job, two children.
00:09:26.360
They still want to house these immigrants, illegal migrants before an English person.
00:09:32.360
I went to speak to, I guess, the Patriots last night, and we had a really productive conversation. And one of the
00:09:41.360
things that I noticed is that they very much spoke about, I guess you could say the enemy or the other
00:09:47.360
side as the left, like as this block. And part of that, the left would be the sanctuary cities. And as I told you,
00:09:58.360
Norwich is a city of sanctuary. It has a whole website, Norwich cities of sanctuary. So I reached out to them,
00:10:03.360
asking them for an interview because I want to understand the perspective of those who want to welcome
00:10:10.360
migrants, more migrants and integrate them. And that's what they appear to be doing. Now, most of the time,
00:10:16.360
people on the left don't respond to me, but I will say fair play to them. They did. Now, before we go on to other
00:10:24.360
information, I noticed on their website, a couple of things. The first thing is they also refer to the
00:10:31.360
other as a as a group, right? So the other they're worried about being targets of misinformation by the
00:10:37.360
far right. So, you know, one group of people is against the left and another group of people is against
00:10:42.360
the far right. And I want to know, are they actually talking to each other? And if not, will they both talk to
00:10:48.360
me now? They've agreed to talk to me. Ben Margulis is the person who responded to me. He did say he did
00:10:53.360
want to have a list of questions ahead of time. So I prepared a list of questions. I'm not here to gotcha
00:10:58.360
anybody. I really do want to just understand where they're coming from. And if they're worried about
00:11:02.360
this polarization, actually. I think the first thing to say is that when certainly people in the U.S.
00:11:08.360
and possibly in Canada as well, here sanctuary cities, there's a U.S. version of a sanctuary city is
00:11:15.360
obviously a city that has different laws in place than some of the federal laws and in other cities.
00:11:21.360
That's not the case in the UK. We obviously don't have that state-based, federal-based system.
00:11:25.360
So a city of sanctuary doesn't have any different laws in place around asylum dispersal than anywhere else.
00:11:34.360
Simply what it means, and we talk about cities of sanctuary rather than sanctuary cities,
00:11:39.360
is that there is a commitment from a broad swathe of the community for it to be a welcoming place.
00:11:46.360
And we're very, very focused on that being a welcoming place for everybody.
00:11:49.360
We do work particularly with people in the asylum system and refugees,
00:11:53.360
but we recognize that we want our communities to be welcoming for everyone.
00:11:57.360
Has there been an effort to, for example, reach out and engage?
00:12:02.360
It's a really good question. And I don't think there has been in anything like the way there should be.
00:12:08.360
I'm very passionate about it and I'm currently doing some work on that right now.
00:12:12.360
So I think, I think dialogue is absolutely critical.
00:12:15.360
And I'm, I'm worried about what's happening in Norwich.
00:12:20.360
And I believe very passionately the dialogue could, is probably the best tool that we have.
00:12:26.360
Yeah, because the website says, like when you go on the, I'm sorry to interrupt,
00:12:29.360
but when you go on the website, it's, it, what you're saying makes a lot of sense.
00:12:33.360
But, but if you go on the website, so if you're somebody from the outside, like me,
00:12:37.360
And when, when you're seeing any reference to some of these migrant protests, right?
00:12:41.360
It sort of just talks about the, the far right as a group.
00:12:44.360
Like it doesn't really talk about the, the, the broader group of people.
00:12:48.360
And maybe that's not, that's not something that needs to happen for cities of Sanctuary.
00:12:53.360
Is that on the national website or on the Norwich website?
00:12:56.360
It might've actually been on the, the national one.
00:13:01.360
And I should look at that because I think it's, I think language is unbelievably powerful
00:13:07.360
I do not fully second believe that let's say there's been at times three or 400 people protesting
00:13:12.360
outside the hotel in both of the, the, the, you know, I don't, I don't want to put a percentage
00:13:17.360
on it, but a very high percentage of those people are not far right.
00:13:21.360
They are people, local people with very legitimate concerns.
00:13:23.360
My concern is that in part because of misinformation.
00:13:28.360
The nature of social media, in part because of some agitation from outside, those concerns
00:13:32.360
are being, um, aimed at the, the, the, the, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
00:13:38.360
The enemy, that the reason for all of these things is immigrants and asylum seekers.
00:13:44.360
We, we work with all sorts of people who are, um, arrived in the asylum system.
00:13:50.360
I could not ask for anyone, but I can tell you of, um, I can tell you of a man, uh, from Syria
00:13:55.360
who, uh, who several members of his family were killed.
00:13:59.360
He had no option but to flee because he was a direct threat of being murdered,
00:14:05.360
Um, took him many, many months to travel over land.
00:14:16.360
Since he's received his asylum claim, he's now practicing as a doctor here.
00:14:24.360
He's, um, working with lots of people with, um, significant trauma.
00:14:28.360
British people and people from other countries to support them in the city.
00:14:31.360
And he's doing huge amount of work to support the wider healthcare system
00:14:34.360
to think about how they are working with asylum seekers and so on.
00:14:38.360
Um, we know dentists who now are practicing dentistry.
00:14:41.360
And we know it's a huge problem to get enough dentists.
00:14:44.360
Um, there's engineers who are now working with companies doing engineering in the city.
00:14:49.360
I mean, there are so many examples, um, of people who once they receive their asylum claim
00:14:57.360
Going from traveling on foot probably and a boat to practicing medicine abroad.
00:15:12.360
is struggling with the same uneasy transformation.
00:15:16.360
A quiet erosion of trust, identity, and belonging.
00:15:20.360
What was once called tolerance has begun to feel to many like enforced compliance.
00:15:25.360
Patriotism itself has been recast as something suspect.
00:15:29.360
Acceptable only when expressed in the right way by the right people.
00:15:35.360
Citizens who voice concerns are branded with the familiar dismissive labels, far right, extremist,
00:15:44.360
These labels are thrown around like lazy pejoratives, thought stopping cliches to soothe the cognitive
00:15:51.360
At the same time, the political class seem ever more willing to punish for wrong think, while
00:16:03.360
Speech crimes prosecuted, while real crimes are left ignored.
00:16:07.360
In Norwich, a place far removed from London's political theatre, is certainly the last place
00:16:12.360
you'd expect a movement like this to take shape.
00:16:15.360
It's not led by agitators, but by local people who speak less of ideology than home,
00:16:22.360
safety, fairness, and a longing for stability in a world that feels increasingly tense.
00:16:28.360
The English are done, watching their country decline, and they're no longer willing to stand
00:16:34.360
And I for one hope that resolve will inspire Canadians too.