Masked anti-migrant protesters shut down UK’s Dover port

Dozens of masked people reportedly blocked access to the Port of Dover on Saturday in a protest against migrant crossings across the English Channel, bringing traffic between southern England and France to a halt.

The port said traffic moving in and out had stopped because of an ongoing public-order incident. Local police said they were engaging with the protesters, while the port authority said every route into and out of the terminal was blocked. Images circulating online, which AFP said it could not independently verify, showed people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas on roads around the port.

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Traffic going in and out of the Port is stopped due to an ongoing public order incident.

Paul King, a local councillor for the anti-immigration Reform UK party, said he had been told the action was a “stop the boats protest”. Britain has faced continuing political pressure over the dangerous and contentious crossings, which have brought tens of thousands of migrants to southeast England each year.

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engaging

The issue has become a central focus for the hard right as anti-immigration sentiment has grown. The centre-left Labour government says the number of boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers across the Channel was the lowest this summer since 2019, partly because of cooperation agreements with France.

The disruption affected one of Britain’s main links with continental Europe. During the summer, the Port of Dover says it handles more than 10,000 freight vehicles and 15,000 passenger vehicles each day, and accounts for one-third of Britain’s goods trade with the European Union.

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stop the boats protest