00:13I'm here today because I've served for 30 years in the military, so I think it's for national pride.
00:20It's also in no disrespect to anybody on the left or anybody else that we fly our flag, our fought for this flag.
00:27And therefore, I think it's crucial that we demonstrate our right to say no to immigrants coming to this country untested, no documentation, no IDs, unless we put in hotels at public expense.
00:42In this country, we paid a lot of money. We paid a lot of sacrifice and blood.
00:46There's a lot of ex-service people down here today, and I think it's still the right thing to do.
00:50It's not a left wing. It's not a right wing. It's proud to fly our flag and say no.
00:56We've here started in this government and successive governments that have also led to this imbalance of immigration to public mistrust of the government,
01:05and also to what's happening with local immigrants and the local economy as well.
01:10I feel like it's the only voice we have, and I am the great candidate that we've got to have immigrants who came here deeply and worked hard and integrated into the system.
01:23There were a couple of other people who raised the pandemic and must have been calling out down London.
01:28So there are any horns watching? Hi!
01:32So I came here to object to the way these people are coming in.
01:37What we're saying is really, I think, to take out the benefits, and I don't think it's fine.
01:47I'm Jeannie Robinson. I'm from the Both Stand Up to Racism and the Refugees Corp. in Chesterfield.
01:54We've come today because we knew that the far-right were organizing today to come harass and intimidate the refugees who begin this hotel.
02:06And we thought it was important for people to stand up and say,
02:10we won't stand for their division, we won't stand for their hatred, we won't stand for their racism.
02:16And amongst the people that have come on the other side are organized fascists.
02:21The only role in life in being here is to stare at Trump.
02:26And I'm immensely proud of over 360 people who've come on our side doing a head count.
02:33And they come from all walks of life, from right across our town.
02:38We're very proud to be standing here in solidarity with the refugees in the hotel.
02:44We've been supporting the refugees in the hotel since May 2022.
02:50And the vast majority of people in the houses have told us that they are not any problem.
02:57We give them donated clothes because they're only on £8.86 a week.
03:02We give them bicycles so they can get around.
03:06But more importantly, we take them out into the community, to college.
03:10And we make sure that they get access to volunteer opportunities because they're not allowed to work.
03:16And they have to put up with this racism and hate.
03:21They're getting many more verbal abuse on the streets.
03:25They don't feel safe going out any longer.
03:29And when local people who've been putting all the flags up to intimidate them and also come onto the premises and refuse to leave and left the flag up on the end of the hotel.
03:41It's obviously intimidating.
03:45And we just want to show that they have solidarity and support for the vast majority of people.
03:51And this narrative racism only divides people.
03:55It doesn't solve the housing pattern.
03:58It doesn't give us more access to NHS.
04:02And it doesn't give us more money for cost of living.
04:06It divides us.
04:07So it's really important.
04:09We see these as individual human beings, with families, with lives before they came here.
04:15And not just the number.
04:17And not just the fact that they came over on a small boat.
04:20This is really important.
04:22We see them as people.
04:24And if I said to somebody, here's a black baby just before.
04:28And here's a white baby.
04:30Can you tell me who has the most rights?
04:33They shouldn't say one above the other.
04:36They shouldn't say they're both people.
04:38And yet, this racism feeds that only white people are entitled to things, which is untrue.
04:45And they say illegal, but they're not illegal.
04:49Under the 1952 UN Refugee Convention, they have every right to claim asylum.
04:56They can't get here on safe routes.
04:59For the Ukrainians, they set up safe routes.
05:02And they had visas from France.
05:05That is impossible for many of our refugees.
05:08And they need to come the only way that they can fight to find safety.
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