A man, 19, was charged on Sunday with violent disorder and assault in connection with a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Knowsley, near Liverpool in England.
A peaceful protest outside the Suites Hotel turned violent on Friday when some demonstrators threw projectiles including lit fireworks at police and attacked a police van with hammers before setting it aflame.
Police arrested Jarad Skeete, 19, and 14 others.
Mr Skeete, who was accused of violent disorder and assaulting an emergency services worker, was remanded in custody and due to appear in court Monday.
Police said the incident slightly injured an officer and two members of the public.
Labour's Lisa Nandy criticised the government for creating a “toxic” mix of anti-migrant rhetoric and poor accommodation provisions for asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their applications.
“When you lay on to that a government that talks about things like an ‘invasion’ in relation to immigration, you have a perfect storm, a really toxic mix that is being created,” Ms Nandy told the BBC.
Migrants at immigration processing centre in Manston - in pictures
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A person gestures through a fence at the immigration processing centre in Manston, Kent in southern England. Reuters -
Security staff work to cover the view of people thought to be migrants in the Manston centre. PA -
An aerial view of the facility in Manston. PA -
Seven hundred people were moved to the centre for safety reasons after incendiary devices were thrown at a Border Force migrant centre in Dover on Sunday. Reuters -
A man holds up a baby in the immigration processing centre. Reuters -
A woman at the Manston centre. Reuters -
A tent inside the processing centre. Reuters -
The entrance to the Manston immigration holding facility. AP
Development minister Andrew Mitchell said the Conservative government condemned the violence and was trying hard to “stop the excessive use of hotels” to house migrants.
Britain takes in fewer asylum-seekers than some of its European neighbours, including France and Germany, but has seen a sharp increase in the number of people trying to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel in small boats.
More than 45,000 people reached Britain by that route in 2022. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said stopping the small boat crossings is one of his top priorities.
Migrant children rescued in French waters - in pictures
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Migrants are rescued by crew members of the 'Abeille Languedoc' ship after their boat's generator broke down in French waters as they were trying to cross the Channel illegally to Britain. All photos: AFP -
Migrants wait for help in the Channel. -
A child is rescued by crew members of the 'Abeille Languedoc'. -
The 'Abeille Languedoc' is an ocean-going tug specialising in the rescue of vessels in distress. -
Migrant children on the rescue boat. -
The 'Abeille Languedoc' has been moored in Cherbourg for 26 years, monitoring the Channel between the Cotentin and the Pas-de-Calais. -
Migrants sit on board the 'Abeille Languedoc' after being rescued. -
A rescuer carries a child as they disembark from the 'Abeille Languedoc'.
Scores of migrants have had to wait for months or longer for a decision on their asylum claims, with many stuck in hotels or other unsuitable temporary accommodation.
Meanwhile, a government minister said on Sunday that plans to send migrants to Rwanda will have only a “marginal” benefit.
The scheme has been mired in legal challenges, and so far there have been no migrant flights to the African nation.
Mr Mitchell said the scheme was not the “whole answer”.
Inside a refugee camp in Rwanda - video
He rejected the idea that the UK could withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights over plans to tackle the problem of small boats carrying migrants across the Channel.
Mr Mitchell, who was critical of the Rwanda scheme as a backbencher, told Channel 4 that if it was to have “any” benefit, it would not be the “whole of the effort we have to make”.
“It will be a marginal benefit. What we have to do is to stop these boats and there are a series of other mechanisms which we could use to do that,” he said.
The scheme was “worth exploring”, but “it is definitely not the whole answer”.
UK's first Rwanda deportation flight cancelled - video
Despite speculation in Westminster, Mr Mitchell said the idea of leaving the ECHR was not being seriously considered.
An intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, which rules on ECHR cases, effectively grounded the first scheduled flight under the Rwanda partnership deal last year.
Some in the Tory Party, including Home Secretary Suella Braverman, have spoken in favour of leaving the ECHR to help make it easier to send migrants overseas.
“The proposal that we should leave the ECHR is not one that the government has considered and is, in my view, unlikely to consider," said Mr Mitchell.
