We heard last week that an anti-refugee group were planning to protest outside one of the hotels in Wolverhampton which house many of the asylum-seeker women and children who come to our weekly Drop-In. So we turned up in large numbers to reassure our friends that THEY ARE WELCOME HERE!

Perhaps forty or more of us, from Wolverhampton City of Sanctuary, W’ton Society of Friends (Quakers), Black Country Stand Up To Racism and other groups, assembled peacefully outside the entrance to the hotel. We displayed supportive banners and placards; We chanted “Say it loud say it clear, Refugees are welcome here”; Some of our friends inside the hotel waved back from the windows. We ‘networked’ and made plans.

Gradually, no more than half-a-dozen anti-refugee protesters assembled further along the pavement, some wearing Union Flags. Wolverhampton, with people from many different cultures living together very happily, is surely a fruitless place to attempt a racist protest. Four police and community support officers had little to do except keep an eye on our bicycles.

The hotel staff had been advised to go into lockdown, so we were unable to deliver the treats, ready-to-eat food, and sanitary products which had been purchased for the residents. No problem – we can deliver them in other ways along with our usual distribution of clothes and other essentials. We also collected extra funds for our asylum-seeker holiday scheme, where many of our asylum-seeker children will be able to play on a safe beach for the first time (Extra thanks!).

Of course people can choose to protest, but asylum seekers don’t have the right to choose where they live. They have to go where the Home Office puts them, and run-down hotels should only ever be a very short term solution. And angry aggressive protests should not be held in front of the hotels where vulnerable adults and children live.