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Disclosure Are Refugees Welcome Here (01 Dec 2025)
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00:00This year, something changed.
00:13Send them hope! Send them hope!
00:16Send them hope! Send them hope!
00:19Together we are sending a message that we don't offer these people in our communities.
00:24It's about illegal, unvetted and undocumented men.
00:28There is rising anger over the number of asylum seekers coming to the UK and being housed in hotels.
00:39Thousands of people took to the streets as protests spread through our towns and cities.
00:48There is something deeper going on here, something more profound.
00:52Immigration is now one of the main issues of concern and tension in our country.
00:58It's right! It's all right!
01:00Nazi scum! Up our streets!
01:02Nazi scum! Up our streets!
01:04It's felt like a summer of division and hatred and worry.
01:08See our lives and see it clear!
01:10Refugees are welcome here!
01:13And it's all playing out in one small town in central Scotland.
01:31Since 2021, the Cladden Hotel in Falkirk has been used by the UK government to house male asylum seekers while their applications to remain in the country are processed.
01:41Some people don't want them here and are protesting.
01:44Some people don't want them here and are protesting.
01:48It's about our country who are struggling.
01:53We've got war veterans actually on the street, actually.
01:57They've got housing, families cannae cope, homeless people on the street and yet these people are coming into our country getting funded in a hotel.
02:06We cannae survive ourselves!
02:08The community is absolutely fed up. They're not listening to us.
02:12As a tax paying citizen, I would like to have a say in what's happening in our village.
02:17And that's not happening.
02:19Either the politics do something about it or these people that are surrounded here today will do something about it.
02:28Good afternoon, Falkirk!
02:30The protests here are organised by the group Save Our Future and Our Kids Futures.
02:38It's led by local resident Connor Graham.
02:41Every time we stand here together, our voices grow stronger, our presence grows louder and the message gets clearer.
02:48We will not be silenced and we will not stop standing up for our community and our voices are heard!
03:02110,000 people claimed asylum in the year leading up to June.
03:07And while the UK government decides whether to give them sanctuary here, they all need somewhere to live.
03:18Around 6,300 asylum seekers are housed in Scotland, mostly in flats or other accommodation.
03:26A quarter of those are in hotels like the Cladden.
03:30And it's here the reaction has been strongest.
03:38Around 90 men live here, while the UK government assesses their asylum claims.
03:43They get free accommodation, meals and £1.42 a day to live on.
03:54Across the police line, a group of counter-protesters has assembled.
03:58One of them, Muhammad Asif, came to Scotland as an asylum seeker 25 years ago and has worked here ever since.
04:12I came from Afghanistan.
04:15We are portrayed to be scroungers.
04:18People should be uniting.
04:20You know, they should come united and stand together.
04:23Fighting for more resources, for more council houses, more investment, for more libraries,
04:28more, you know, recreation activities for the young generation in this country.
04:33There's anger among the residents here.
04:40On the news, they see men coming on boats, being given food and shelter, seeming to jump the queue.
04:46Falkert was once at the centre of the iron and steel industry.
04:58Now, deprivation levels are increasing.
05:01Around 160,000 people live in the Falkert council area.
05:05There are more than 11,000 names on the waiting list for housing.
05:09The asylum seekers have been placed here against that backdrop.
05:23The whole town's a mess.
05:25Is that the asylum seekers' fault?
05:27Erm...
05:30There's a few undesirables in there.
05:32I'm all for legal migration.
05:34Absolutely. Controlled.
05:35I am totally opposed to illegal migration, purely for economic reasons.
05:42I have every sympathy for people who are genuine asylum seekers,
05:49but most of these young men are just economic migrants.
05:53I can understand people objecting to them taking up accommodation,
05:58if they have not got accommodation for their families here.
06:00If they're coming from war-torn countries and, you know,
06:03they're trying to make a better life for themselves,
06:05I think they definitely should be welcomed if they can fit into society here.
06:08I do have a few concerns about the fact that there are so many single men here
06:12without their families.
06:13In terms of asylum, you don't need to come all the way here,
06:16you only really need to cross the border into the next country.
06:18The fact is that there's far too many, like, coming across to the country,
06:22like it, but they've got to stay somewhere.
06:25I feel sorry for a lot of them.
06:27For me, they should be held, I don't know, army barracks, you know?
06:31I'm not saying chuck them in the river again and put them back to...
06:34No, no. Detention centres.
06:35Detention centres needs to be...
06:37Yeah.
06:38They can't just put people like this in a community.
06:40The presence of the asylum seekers has split the community here.
06:53Laura Murta is a local independent councillor
06:57and also works for an SNP politician.
07:00She's part of Falkert for All, a group countering the protests.
07:04They see these men coming across on boats and they feel hard done by.
07:08Can you understand that?
07:09I do understand that, you know, but we need to address those issues in the round.
07:14It's not a case of, well, we shouldn't be helping people
07:17who are fleeing persecution.
07:20I think that people are potentially angry at the wrong people
07:24and we need to focus on what unifies us.
07:27Do you accept, though, if you put, you know, 90 men in a hotel,
07:31in a community without telling anyone what they're doing there
07:34or who they are, it's going to cause problems?
07:37Absolutely.
07:38And, you know, the answer to that is not to be shouting outside them
07:42for people to go home.
07:43Share the fight! Share the fight!
07:48Decisions to place asylum seekers in hotels are taken by the Home Office,
07:52part of the UK government.
07:54In Falkert, they appeared at the Cladden with little warning.
08:01We did raise concerns at the time in relation to that
08:05and the lack of consultation.
08:07I was very frustrated and angry by that
08:10because we would have much rather had a proper conversation
08:13about appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers
08:16as we didn't feel the location of the hotel was appropriate
08:19nor the facilities.
08:20Are you able to reassure people of Falkert
08:22that housing asylum seekers here has got no impact on them financially
08:26or on the services that they rely on?
08:28Yes, I can give a guarantee to the people of Falkert
08:31that having asylum seekers here
08:35is not going to have any impact financially
08:37or on services to them.
08:39People are finding financial pressures,
08:42cost of living being one example,
08:44energy costs,
08:45and difficulties in being able to access health services.
08:50all of that is creating this dissatisfaction
08:54and it's manifesting itself in a particular way.
09:04But the protests aren't just about the cost of housing asylum seekers.
09:09There's fear here too.
09:14A man who raped a 15-year-old girl after following her on a street in Volkert
09:19has been jailed.
09:22Sparked by an asylum seeker who was living at the Kladdin.
09:26Sadiq Nizad was given a 12-year extended sentence with nine years in custody.
09:33The 29-year-old Afghan asylum seeker targeted the girl
09:37after sporting her walking down a town centre street in October 2023.
09:43Nizad repeatedly requested her telephone number, uttered sexual remarks, then raped her.
09:49Sadiq Nizad was convicted in June and will be deported at the end of his sentence.
10:03Part of his legal defence was that he didn't understand
10:06what was and what was not allowed due to cultural differences
10:10between the UK and Afghanistan.
10:13And this has caused anger.
10:15Instead of contributing, instead of respecting our laws,
10:18he committed one of the worst crimes imaginable
10:21against one of our own children.
10:24Suspicion now falls on the other men in the hotel.
10:28These are all undocumented, fighting-age men
10:31coming to our country unchecked.
10:34You wouldn't have that in a normal society,
10:36so why should we exempt it?
10:38Our granddaughters, our daughters should be safe to walk the streets.
10:41Asylum seekers come from areas impacted by war or other crises.
10:52Their journeys to Europe and the UK can be long and dangerous.
10:59Around 70% of asylum applications here are from men.
11:02UK government policy is to place males in hotels and women and children
11:07in other accommodation wherever possible.
11:12In Falkirk, it's all men in the Cladden Hotel.
11:14They're like modern-day suffragettes.
11:15The pink ladies are a group of local women who want the asylum seekers
11:17removed from the hotel and the town.
11:18We're always classed as being the right wing and I think it's about time they just classed us as
11:35concerned mothers, grands, aunties and this is why I started it.
11:39You know, the young girl that was sexually attacked by one of the people in there,
11:45it was just, it just killed me to know that that girl's life was ruined.
11:51We need to try and protect our young kids because the kids are afraid to go to the parks.
11:56We shouldn't be walking about in fear.
11:58See if that hotel was full of families who were asylum seekers?
12:03I wouldn't bother if they were, I would not bother if they were here from a war-taught country
12:10and they were generally needing asylum.
12:14In 2023, the year Cladden resident Siddick Nixad raped a child,
12:20there were 82 reports of rape or attempted rape in Falkirk.
12:24There are dozens and dozens of sexual assaults and rapes happening in Falkirk every year.
12:30Yep.
12:31What is it about this one attack that was carried out by an asylum seekers that is making you feel like this?
12:37There's people from all different cultures that have all different types of beliefs,
12:41but our belief is that our women and children should be protected.
12:45Scottish men do this too, but the fact is that the boats are still coming, they have a different belief.
12:50One of these men committed a very serious crime against a 15-year-old child.
12:59You accept that's the kind of thing that's going to get people onto the street.
13:02I absolutely condemn the horrific crime which took place and which the man has been rightly convicted of and imprisoned.
13:12But there's a really big problem in global society with sexual violence and with domestic abuse and with violence against women and girls
13:20and that's what we need to be focused on, not scapegoating one community.
13:24We don't want these immigrants in here. They're raping their children, abusing their children.
13:33The protesters say they want to protect women and children from these men.
13:38The other side doubts this is their main motivation.
13:41You can't stop pretending it is about us!
13:45Save women everywhere!
13:49I've never felt unsafe in the way I feel unsafe at these protests.
13:52You know, it actually feels vile at times.
13:57The atmosphere where men are making sexual gestures at you are shouting things like, you know,
14:03wait till it's your turn to be raped, wait till it's you and your daughters, you'll not be standing on that side then.
14:07And I'm a survivor myself.
14:10That's not what you say if you care about, you know, women and children's safety.
14:15Everybody want to say hello?
14:23John Watts is an independent podcaster with a distrust of the mainstream media.
14:28Who's the media?
14:30Thank you!
14:32Start telling the truth and then these people will believe you.
14:36He's appeared at hotel protests across Scotland this year for his YouTube channel, Bring the Noise,
14:44interviewing people about their concerns.
14:47Including this young woman in Aberdeen.
14:50It's obviously not nice as a woman.
14:52Especially just at night time, like I wouldn't go on a walk on my own anymore.
14:55That's a bit of a concern for me to hear that.
14:57And you're a young girl as well.
14:59I appreciate you for talking.
15:00Yeah.
15:01He's also interviewed the pink ladies in Falkirk.
15:04Can I ask you girls, anybody wants to speak at all?
15:06What brings you guys out today?
15:08We need to protect our kids.
15:09Honest.
15:10We definitely trust you.
15:11Oh, 100%.
15:12These people out here have something that the mainstream media and your politicians don't have.
15:19You all have a moral compass.
15:22Yeah!
15:24It's time for the whole of Scotland to bring the noise!
15:27So what about John Watts' moral compass?
15:34He spent the summer building support for his ideas.
15:38But who is he really?
15:40People need to know what he's actually like, what he's done.
15:54Laura was John Watts' partner for 13 years from the age of 19 and has two children with him.
16:03He was a bully.
16:06He was a narcissist.
16:09And his tempera would go from one to a hundred in a matter of seconds.
16:15Laura says he was jealous, controlling and on occasions, violent.
16:20We'd been in a night out and we'd got a taxi home.
16:26An argument started, which then spilled into the house.
16:29And we were standing in the living room and he hit me across the face.
16:35At that point, I grabbed the house phone and dialed 999 and he pulled the phone socket out the wall.
16:44Laura says John Watts promised he'd never hit her again and they stayed together.
16:51But she says his behaviour didn't change.
16:54He would call me all the names under the sun.
16:58What sort of things would he say to you?
17:00He would call me a slut, a whore.
17:03There was times that I, I did threaten to leave.
17:09And he would say to me, who's going to want you with two kids?
17:15You're fat, you're ugly.
17:16On another occasion, after trying to access her phone, John Watts was violent towards Laura again.
17:26He saw Ed, lost his temper and he pinned me up against the bathroom wall by my neck.
17:35Again, just calling me all these names, screaming in my face.
17:38He was over six foot, he went to the gym, we did boxing.
17:43He definitely had all the power.
17:45I definitely would say I was scared of him.
17:49After he grabbed her by the throat, Laura left John Watt.
17:55In 2018, he was convicted of assaulting Laura and another woman on various occasions
18:00and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service.
18:03He didn't have any regard for what he'd done to me physically, emotionally, mentally.
18:14It was as if he just didn't care at all.
18:17I'm just a conspiracy theorist, I call it to you guys.
18:21What was your reaction when you first saw that he was becoming a YouTuber?
18:26Just how much of a hypocrite.
18:28How can he say, ask these women if they feel safe when he's done what he's done to women?
18:36And in my opinion, it's him that these women should be scared of.
18:43It's him that they should be frightened of.
18:46John Watts' convictions hit the headlines in September.
18:50Shortly after, he appeared at a Falkirk protest beside Connor Graham
18:53and railed against the newspapers who exposed him.
18:57I'm going to be doing this!
18:59That man that still stands by my side!
19:02It's up to you!
19:03You're either standing the side of the pit,
19:05or you're standing the side of the lies!
19:07We put all this to John Watts, but he didn't respond.
19:14In a statement, Connor Graham told us,
19:16an individual being present at protests does not mean he supports their personal history, convictions or behaviour.
19:26Falkirk has just won of a wave of protests which spread across the UK this year.
19:31This is school of fun!
19:32This is school of fun grace!
19:34This is school of fun grace!
19:38This is school of fun grace!
19:40This is school of fun grace!
19:47In September, police estimated 150,000 people marched through London.
19:52The event was organised by right-wing activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson.
20:05We are the start of a counter-revolution!
20:10Again, a counter-protest accused the other side of being racists.
20:15If you're arriving in a boat, then you're going back, pure and simple.
20:20Absolutely everybody on this protest is here for the day.
20:24We get called Nazis, we get called racists or neither.
20:28We're only against people arriving in boats.
20:34There is something deeper going on here, something more profound.
20:39Trevor Phillips is the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
20:44He says the genuine concerns of the people protesting need to be listened to.
20:49The way I think you can really get people angry is the feeling that something is being dropped on them from 10,000 feet by people who neither know nor care what the impact is going to be.
21:05Why it's about immigration is because there are people coming into my town who I don't understand.
21:12Nobody's talking to me about who they are. They're not talking to me about who they are.
21:17And everything is changing around me and I want somebody to understand what I feel about that.
21:26There is rising anger, driven not just by the numbers of asylum seekers, but also by reports of serious crimes committed by them.
21:41As well as the rape in Falkirk, an Ethiopian man was convicted for sexual assaults on a teenage girl and a woman in Epping, sparking angry protests there.
21:53An asylum seeker from Sudan was convicted of murdering a woman working at his hotel.
21:58Another from Somalia murdered a stranger in a bank.
22:03He arrived in the UK via a small boat and was known to police in several European countries.
22:13And an Afghan living in London as a refugee has been charged with murder after three people were stabbed on the street.
22:22What I think is very important is not to denigrate communities who say we literally will not put up with this kind of behaviour.
22:34I think it is also right that people in communities just need to remember that just because somebody is a Syrian, that doesn't make them a rapist.
22:45There are rapists who are Syrians, but most Syrians are not rapists.
22:51So I think we just all need to calm down a bit, get a little bit of perspective.
22:59The authorities need to be more decisive, they need to listen a bit more.
23:10While immigration tops the list of concerns in the UK as a whole, in Scotland the issue still ranks a distant third behind health in the economy.
23:20But there is evidence attitudes are hardening here, with recent polling suggesting concerns about immigration and asylum are rising.
23:30Andy Cyril is an immigration lawyer whose clients include people claiming asylum.
23:36The UK has said to people, if you want to claim asylum, you need to be in the UK.
23:41So the question is, how can I get into the UK to claim asylum? Is there a legal way to do it?
23:48And the answer is no. There is no other way to enter the United Kingdom to exercise your right to claim asylum.
23:54In the 12 months to April this year, there were more than 40,000 small boat crossings over the Channel.
24:06Many of the people aboard will claim asylum and enter the system.
24:13I think there is an idea that we have huge numbers of unregulated migration into the UK, which is simply not the case.
24:21If you take small boat crossings alone against the bigger migration picture in the UK, the numbers that the UK see are actually very small and compared to other parts of the world, they're minute.
24:36The vast majority of refugees in the world are living in their neighbouring country.
24:42And the UK is behind other European countries when it comes to how many asylum claims it receives.
24:47We come number five in the European table. We're behind Germany, Spain, France and Italy. If you take that number per head, we're actually way down mid-table.
24:59For some, the protests are about more than the small boats.
25:12Here in Aberdeen, there have been protests outside asylum hotels since the summer.
25:18There's some hostility from the people protesting the hotels.
25:30But what about the people on the other side?
25:34They all turned their back on me. Nobody wanted to talk to the BBC.
25:44Again, there's tension between the two sides here.
25:52These protests are organised by a group calling itself Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration.
25:57What is a nation, you ask? A nation is the people.
26:02If there's no support...
26:03One of the local activists is Josh Fearnley.
26:06Our ancestors, our ancestors, not theirs, formed this land.
26:10Felt for this land to sail the seas.
26:13If China makes me racist, it's fighting it.
26:17Thank you. Unite. God bless.
26:20Some of the rhetoric is much more hard-line.
26:25We're saying enough is enough to our people being replaced in our homeland.
26:29We're becoming second-rate citizens to the people that lead us.
26:32Get them home! Get them home! Get them home!
26:35Like in Falkirk, those on the other side question the protesters' motives.
26:40If you genuinely cared about rape and sexual assaults, you would have cared about it before now.
26:47So I've heard some shouts from the other side of the road calling the people here racist, fascist.
26:55What do you see in response to that?
26:57Oh, I'm cool with it. Cool with it.
26:59If it makes me racist and a fascist to stand out on my own people, then so be it.
27:03I'm a proud racist and fascist.
27:04But what about the people living in the hotels here?
27:15Nobody can understand the situation, what has happened for me in my country.
27:23Every night I have these nightmares.
27:25David and Michael, not their real names, are asylum seekers placed in a hotel in Aberdeen.
27:34They say they fled Iran after being targeted and tortured by the regime there after converting from Islam to Christianity.
27:41They've asked us not to show their faces to protect loved ones at home.
27:45This is very easy for them to kill people.
27:50And they believe this, that it's from the God.
27:54Believe me, I didn't want to leave my country.
27:57Every night I have the nightmare of the torturing in the situation I had in Iran.
28:02I left my country, my love, my situation, my work, my house, and now I'm in another country with difficult situations.
28:17David says his family paid for smugglers to take him as far away as possible, and he had no idea he was coming to the UK until it was time to cross the channel.
28:26He says there were women and children, as well as men, on the small boat crossing.
28:33Were people scared?
28:36Yeah, the families screaming.
28:39You should see a lot of dangerous situation with the boat.
28:44You see the waves that they come and you cannot do anything.
28:49The UK government has assessed David's case and granted him refugee status, meaning it accepts his life would be in danger were he to return to Iran.
29:00Michael says he has a wife and three children at home.
29:05Lots of people wonder how it is that men are able to leave their families.
29:10But it means you may never see them again if you stay here.
29:29David says he wants to stay in the UK and contribute.
29:42And you hope to leave the hotel soon?
29:44Yes, I want, I hope that I can leave the hotel and work and I can give my taxes to the government.
29:54You know, it's very important for me that I stand on my feet.
30:03In September, some of the asylum seekers were moved out of one of the hotels and into former student accommodation.
30:10That angered protestors too.
30:13That angered protestors too.
30:27Josh Fearnay was there again, along with another activist, former Royal Marine, John Calm.
30:34All of these establishments in Aberdeen, exclusively men, exclusively military fighting age fans.
30:44Who agreed to that?
30:49We're saying the white lives matter.
30:53Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.
31:03The approach here is different to Falkirk.
31:06If you are tired of being a second class citizen in your own country.
31:09If you're tired of third world invaders being prioritized over our people.
31:13That builds trust, does it?
31:15Seen here on John Carr's YouTube channel.
31:18This is a recreation ground that should be for kids.
31:21It should be for the local people of West Hill.
31:23But now it is for third world men to come and take over every single day.
31:28Your children in this area are not safe.
31:31Smile and wave as we retake our homeland and send them all home.
31:36They refer to the asylum seekers as third world invaders.
31:41And it's not just about asylum seekers.
31:44There's ideas about who is really Scottish, who really belongs here and who needs to be sent back where they came from.
31:51You are welcome here!
31:53I wanted to understand more about what was driving the group here.
31:57Josh Fairney agreed to sit down with me.
32:00These asylum seekers, the money that's going to them, to housing them, could be going to actually helping our people.
32:05I'm not just doing this out of some, like, hatred for another people.
32:10I'm doing it because I love my people.
32:11I love my nation.
32:12And I want us to thrive.
32:14I want us to be happy.
32:15So can I ask you then, what makes a Scottish person?
32:18Scottish person, ancestral ties.
32:21That's what it is.
32:22If your ancestry ties back to this land, then you're one of us.
32:27Can a black person born in Scotland be Scottish?
32:32No, because they don't have ancestral ties to here.
32:35I've seen some things on social media from your account saying things like, they're all going back.
32:41What does that mean?
32:42So, they're all going back is just exactly how it sounds, do you know?
32:47Every person that is classed as a danger or a detriment to our people will be sent back to their ancestral homeland.
32:54Everyone that's not integrated...
32:56Even though they've not committed any crimes, they've been living peacefully and probably contributing in a way that, you know,
33:02maybe they're paying their taxes, maybe they're working or...
33:05But at the end of the day, it's still not their home...
33:06But they're living in their own communities, they've still got to go back.
33:09It's still not their homeland though.
33:11Josh describes this process of removing some people from the UK as re-migration.
33:17He also says he believes white people are being replaced here.
33:23I had a look at the census data for Scotland and in 2022, it was about 7% of the country was non-white, 2% Muslim.
33:34That doesn't sound like we're being replaced.
33:37Surely, if you are Scottish and you want the Scottish people to be Scottish, rather than having Scottish people now becoming an Islamic state...
33:47Sorry, Josh...
33:502% of Scotland is Muslim.
33:54That's a tiny fraction.
33:56It's not realistic to say, surely, that Scotland could become an Islamic state.
34:01But when you're talking about...
34:04You're talking about it as though it's not actually happening.
34:07When you've got all the...
34:09Like, Anas Sinwar is leader of the Scottish Labour Party.
34:14Like I was saying, Humza Yusuf, that's two Muslims there and they held two of the highest positions in Scotland.
34:19People are going to watch this and they're going to think, he is a racist.
34:24He is a fascist.
34:26And whatever role you play, if any, in the organisation of these protests is really damaging.
34:34What would you say in response to all that?
34:38I would...
34:40I would speak to any of them because all I'm trying to do is stand for my people.
34:46For our people in our ancestral homeland.
34:49And if people want to think that's racist, if people want to think that's fascist,
34:53and I say that that's a very narrow-minded way to look at what we're trying to achieve.
34:57We're trying to allow our people to be safe so that we're not seeing all these news stories every other day
35:03of people being murdered, stabbed, robbed and raped on our streets.
35:08Why does that make me a bad person?
35:15Back in Falkirk, as the protests continued into the autumn,
35:19the divisions between the two groups have become clearer.
35:23Say it loud and say it clear!
35:26Refugees are welcome here!
35:36Five days before this protest, a window at the hotel was smashed.
35:41Our community has a right to feel safe.
35:46Parents and children and residents shouldn't have to live with constant fear.
35:52Connor Graham is speaking again.
35:54He has convictions for violence, including biting a police officer.
35:58Yet here we are, seeing the same patterns repeat without decisive action.
36:03We are not here to attack individuals based on background or nationality.
36:07We are here to demand that authorities, our local council,
36:11and those responsible for these accommodations take responsibility.
36:16The organisers say it's not about race.
36:19But the protests have faced accusations of racism since they began.
36:24At the first, back in August, some people appear to be giving Nazi salutes.
36:31And again in November.
36:34While others have held up banners with racist insignia and slogans.
36:39This banner shows what's known as the 14 words,
36:43a racist verse which warns of the replacement of white people.
36:47Protests at the asylum hotels are really only one part of a larger story.
36:50Dr Judith Seistermonds researches and tracks the activities of extremist groups in Scotland.
36:57You could interpret the protests at asylum seeker hotels
37:01as a discussion around housing or around migration policy
37:05or around who deserves or does not deserve welfare.
37:10But when you see slogans like this, which are clearly about race,
37:14and also have an attachment to an idea of propagating a certain race, right,
37:19so children, this focus on children and reproduction of the white race,
37:23this is clearly coming from an extremely racist history
37:30and also a history based in violent politics.
37:34One speaker at early protests was Richard McFarlane
37:38from the political group Patriotic Alternative.
37:41Dave Braddon White!
37:43Dave Feather White!
37:44Dave Feather White!
37:45Dave Feather White!
37:46Dave Feather White!
37:50Well done!
37:52Well done!
37:55Wally!
37:56Wally!
37:57Wally!
37:58Wally!
37:59Connor Graham told us he had never organised,
38:01approved, encouraged, or condoned any racist behaviour or Nazi gestures.
38:06He added that if isolated individuals turned up and acted on their own, that is on them, not on him.
38:13At a mid-week protest outside the Cladden, Conor Graham was on the megaphone again.
38:18Let's keep it peaceful tonight, let's keep it united and let's keep it strong
38:22because together we are sending a message that we do not want these people in our communities.
38:31There is no counter-protest tonight.
38:34But the focus, for some, is on the asylum seekers.
38:50One regular attender of the protests is questioning journalists about their reporting.
38:55So I asked to speak to him on camera.
38:58Oh, come on. He's got to do it right though.
39:02I mean, I've seen some of the stitch-up jobs these guys have done.
39:05I'm getting sick to the back teeth of these people being branded as right-wing thugs, fascists, Nazis, racists.
39:12Because that's not what we are. We're just concerned citizens.
39:16I mean, there's some people over there shouting pretty nasty abuse at the asylum seekers.
39:21But they're not attached to us.
39:22And people will eventually say to them, time to stop it.
39:26There has been some far-right people here speaking on the mic.
39:30What makes it far-right?
39:32I mean, that's what I'd love to know with you guys.
39:34When you say we're far-right, what makes us far-right?
39:37No, no. I never said that. I said there has been a presence here of people from the far-right.
39:42People are not attached to us.
39:43For example, saying things like, keep Scotland white.
39:46OK, that's not acceptable.
39:48Is that something you would agree with?
39:49No, it's not. No, I don't agree with that. 100% don't agree with that.
39:52This is not about racism. This is not about anything.
39:55Skin colour. It's about illegal, illegal, unvetted and undocumented men.
40:01The men in the hotel claiming asylum are here legally,
40:05while the government decides whether they can stay indefinitely.
40:08But many of the people here don't accept that.
40:11We're spending so much money housing these people.
40:14Somebody in that hotel right now is getting three square meals,
40:18they've got e-bikes, they're getting telly, they're getting warmth,
40:22they're getting clothing, they're getting phones, they're getting free healthcare.
40:26And if you think that's right in our country right now, I don't.
40:30The government would say they're legally obliged to put these people through the asylum process.
40:36Why?
40:37And is it their fault, necessarily, about the poverty...
40:40Why break into a country?
40:41..that the poverty is such...
40:43Well, it is their fault, cos they're milking their system dry.
40:46They've got no bills at all.
40:53Couldn't the council have done more to ease this situation?
40:57We may have taken a little bit for granted our communities,
41:00and that is something we now need to look to address,
41:03and we need to put an awful lot more work into building resilient,
41:08cohesive communities going forward.
41:14Asylum seekers can be seen returning to the hotel and are met by a torrent of abuse,
41:19including being called paedophiles.
41:27Get out, paedophiles!
41:30Get out, paedophiles!
41:32Get out, paedophiles!
41:39Get out, paedophiles!
41:41Get out, paedophiles!
41:50The broken window in September isn't the first time the hotel has been targeted.
41:56This video from last year, taken by a resident, shows the aftermath of an attack.
42:01Some asylum seekers in Falkirk are supported by Friends of Scottish Settlers.
42:15They provide welcome packs and second-hand phones,
42:18and also do activities with the men.
42:22The charity's manager, Sarah Stewart, says recently their volunteers have been threatened.
42:27It is only since these protests have started that we've seriously had to increase security.
42:33People are scapegoating this small group of people,
42:37who are ordinary people, just trying to live a normal life.
42:43Since one of the men living in the hotel was convicted of rape,
42:47she says all the other men living there have been unfairly targeted.
42:50I think if people considered, you know, how awful it is also to just be existing in public
43:00and someone to come up and ask you to account for yourself,
43:05you know, people are allowed to exist in public.
43:11We'd been trying for weeks to get an asylum seeker in Falkirk to talk to us.
43:15We'd arranged an interview with this man and an interpreter on the outskirts of a park.
43:21Just before we finished recording, we were approached by a local resident filming on her phone.
43:25Just asking why yous are encouraging these young men to sit in this park?
43:29Just asking why yous are encouraging these young men to sit in this park that they've been following children and not about any previously.
43:35Gavin, Gavin, film this.
43:37Yeah, cut the camera. You can put the camera on them if you want.
43:41We've been trying your hard to keep this park safe.
43:44And you, as a BBC reporter, have now just encouraged them to come back into this park.
43:47They're entitled to have their say.
43:48Yeah, of course they are.
43:49And we're doing our jobs.
43:50Take it out of a play park.
43:51Take it out of a park that women and children come here on their own.
43:52I think...
43:53To walk their dogs.
43:54So we're just doing...
43:55This Falkirk is a big place.
43:56So we're just doing...
43:57We're encouraging them to come into a park.
43:58We're just doing our jobs.
43:59A park.
44:00Thanks very much.
44:01It's a public park.
44:02It's a public park.
44:03We're umpteen.
44:04Go and take that camera off me.
44:05We're umpteen.
44:06Kids have been following.
44:07Don't really understand what your concern is because there's no threat.
44:08We...
44:09Right at this moment in time there's not.
44:10Is that what you're telling me?
44:11Exactly is what I'm telling you.
44:12Women and children feeling safe coming on their own now.
44:13Okay.
44:14I've taken your point on boards.
44:15Might not have been this young man here.
44:16Might not have been that young man here.
44:17I've taken your point on boards.
44:18But it has happened.
44:19And you do not need to be encouraging it for your interviews.
44:20I've taken your point on boards.
44:21There is many places to do your interviews.
44:22I've taken your point on boards.
44:23Understood.
44:24Thanks very much.
44:26I've taken your point on boards.
44:27I've taken your point on boards.
44:28You've taken your point on boards.
44:29But it has happened.
44:30And you do not need to be encouraging it for your interviews.
44:34I've taken your point on boards.
44:35There is many places to do your interviews.
44:37Understood.
44:38Thanks very much.
44:40Axel, come.
44:41Bring your ball.
44:42Get your ball.
44:43See?
44:44And this is what you're encouraging.
44:46This never happens until you've turned up here.
44:49I'm here every single night at this time.
44:51And this never happened until you've turned up here again.
44:55These boys, these men, didn't enter this park for weeks and weeks and weeks.
44:59Axel, come.
45:00And is that what you want?
45:01And you've encouraged that.
45:02Right at this moment in time.
45:04Yes, please.
45:09Well, that was just a bit of a flavour of how some of the people in the Falkirk feel
45:13about the men living in this hotel.
45:16Axel, come.
45:20Yes.
45:21Yes.
45:22Yes.
45:23Yes.
45:24Yes.
45:25Yes.
45:26Yes.
45:27Yes.
45:28Yes.
45:29Yes.
45:30Yes.
45:31Yes.
45:32Yes.
45:33Yes.
45:34Yes.
45:35After this incident, the man was shaken and asked us not to use his interview.
45:42Police Scotland told us that there had been no incidents reported in the park in relation
45:46to asylum seekers from the Cladden and no crimes raised to date.
45:51The women's video was posted online and retweeted by Tommy Robinson.
45:58It received millions of views and my timeline was deluged.
46:03And these were some of the comments on the Falkirk protesters' page.
46:12Connor Graham, the main administrator of the group, told us inappropriate posts are
46:17removed when seen or reported.
46:19He says he does not support racism and has been clear on this repeatedly.
46:39The protests have led to a sense of division in the town.
46:43It's even created fear in some communities.
46:54Many prayers at Falkirk Central Mosque.
46:57Some of the more extreme elements of the protests have been noticed here.
47:01And that's caused concern for the Imam.
47:04Our mosque is open to all.
47:07We welcome for dialogue, friendship, and we can build up community based on respect and compassion.
47:19When I joined the mosque, these days I was very peaceful and very good and very satisfied.
47:26But nowadays when I started the racism and protesting, I'm feeling uncomfortable and unsafe.
47:36The Imam says he gives messages to the people of the mosque to be careful on days where there are protests.
47:42He says eggs were thrown at the mosque window on one protest day.
47:47While others told me they'd seen women wearing the hijab verbally abused in the street.
47:53I feel a big difference but there is a fear inside you, you know, because of the environment, because of the hotel.
48:00I mean the only thing between me and them is my colour.
48:04We talk the same before we went to the same kind of school, have the same kind of friends.
48:10We aren't a threat. In no way are we a threat.
48:15The people here have heard the protesters say they want to protect the future of children.
48:21But it seems it's having an impact on them too.
48:24My wee boy, ten year old, you know, because of his colour he's been told, you know, you should be deported and all that.
48:29You know, kids are listening from parents or from outside or from social media.
48:34Then sometimes kids they don't understand, they just say to the other kids but they don't realise how hurtful.
48:41This Saturday far-right groups are planning a protest against immigration from 12pm.
48:50For your safety and peace of mind, we strongly advise avoid travelling into Glasgow city centre on Saturday.
49:00Help us! Help us! Help us! Help us! Help us! Help us!
49:07Help us! We are not going to stop. We will keep speaking out. And we will keep protesting. We will keep standing together.
49:22because the moment we go quiet, they won!
49:33After this event in Glasgow,
49:35Connor Graham told us he'd do an interview with us, but...
49:39We come here tonight and he's changed his mind.
49:42He says this is because he doesn't like the way the BBC
49:45has been reporting the hotel protest story.
49:49We are here because we refuse to accept illegal immigrants
49:52to belong to this hotel,
49:54right here in the middle of our community!
49:58Connor, are you sure we don't want to talk to us?
50:01Did you not get that one?
50:02I begot it, but we'd love you to talk to us on camera.
50:06We never did get an interview with Connor Graham.
50:09One of the things I'd wanted to ask him about
50:11was his views on Islam.
50:14We've seen a message posted publicly by his group since deleted.
50:19It described the men living in asylum hotels
50:22as evil due to their religions.
50:25It said,
50:26I'm not racist at all.
50:27What I do not believe in
50:29is the fact they are pushing a religion onto our culture.
50:34In a message sent privately,
50:36Connor Graham said he was worried Islamists
50:38would take over our country.
50:40He described Islam as poison
50:42and said anyone who agrees with their way
50:44needs to go and live in their country too.
50:47Connor Graham said allegations he'd made Islamophobic post
50:51were wrong.
50:52He said criticism of government policy,
50:55immigration issues or community safety
50:57is not the same as attacking a religion.
51:00He said he has never promoted hatred towards any faith group.
51:05Every week for three months now,
51:12people have gathered in front of the hotel
51:14on either side of the street
51:16and on either side of an increasingly bitter divide.
51:19Look at you stupid!
51:23Look at you stupid!
51:25It's felt like a summer of division and hatred and worry
51:30and it's not been a nice place to be
51:32and that's not a place that I think Folkirk is
51:35and it's not representative of what their community or town is.
51:39Kevin Doyle has been attending the counter protest since August.
51:43Just describe for me what it's been like being at the protests.
51:48The first protest was the worst.
51:51You practically had people shouting in your face
51:55before the police would come over and pull them back.
51:58Protests in general, we get insults,
52:01just relentless abuse from the protestors.
52:05You're a beast! You're a beast! You're a beast!
52:08You're a beast!
52:10You're a beast!
52:13This is Kevin in a TikTok Live video taken at one protest.
52:17You can hear protestors falsely claiming he is a convicted paedophile
52:22and saying they knew where he lived.
52:24They were saying that they were going to come to my house,
52:29they were going to smash my windows,
52:33set the house on fire and they were going to slit my throat.
52:37I don't know if any of you is a fulpert,
52:40but if you know if anybody's going to get lunch tonight...
52:42No!
52:43That evening, some people gathered across from Kevin's house
52:47and again falsely shouted that he was a paedophile.
52:50How am I a paedophile?
52:52How am I a paedophile?
52:53How am I a paedophile?
52:54Eh?
52:55I phoned the police to let them know.
53:05It was such a horrible experience for me
53:08and I've never experienced that before
53:10and hopefully I won't ever experience it again.
53:13Then, the next evening, things took another turn.
53:16Connor Graham's group posted Kevin's image
53:19next to a completely different man, a convicted paedophile.
53:23This isn't scaremongering, this is facts.
53:26And there's a picture of you and there's a picture of the sex offender.
53:31Yeah.
53:32There was no effort to contact me to find out if I was the same person.
53:41It was really scary.
53:42Kevin said the post was up for more than an hour before it was removed.
53:46No correction or apology has been offered.
53:49Can you sum up how you feel about this?
53:51I feel, yeah, really angry.
53:53Once that information is out there, the damage is already done.
53:58It has created an element of fear.
54:01This group haven't made my community any safer for me.
54:06They've done the opposite.
54:08They've effectively put a target on my back.
54:17Connor Graham said he'd never knowingly posted false information about anyone.
54:22He said the post about Kevin was a mistake by another admin
54:25and they rectified it within 20 minutes of it being posted.
54:36Kevin's gone back to the protests and has continued to be abused
54:40and falsely labelled a paedophile.
54:42The hostility at the protests also continues.
54:57While Falkirk remains at the centre of an issue, dividing the country.
55:03Last year it cost £2.1 billion to house asylum seekers in hotels.
55:23And a recent report by MPs found the costs were sharply rising.
55:28This is a failed experiment.
55:31The irony of all of this is that everybody agrees.
55:34Everybody agrees that hotels are a bad idea.
55:37Perhaps not the hoteliers, but everybody else agrees that hotels are a bad idea.
55:43Asylum applications are at their highest point for 20 years.
55:47Under growing pressure, in November, the UK government announced a raft of new policies.
55:53This includes limits on the length of time asylum seekers can stay once their applications have been granted.
56:00And new, fast-track deportations of illegal migrants.
56:04To the British public who foot the bill, the system feels out of control and unfair.
56:10It feels that way because it is.
56:13The pace and scale of change has destabilised communities.
56:16It is making our country a more divided place.
56:21For now, thousands of asylum seekers remain in hotels like the Cladden,
56:25while plans are made to draw their use to an end.
56:28But will the new plans prove any more popular?
56:32In October, it was announced that 300 asylum seekers will be housed in army barracks near Inverness city centre.
56:38Again, locals are angry at not being consulted, and a familiar divide is evident.
56:44너무IL D dove.
56:46Noce!
57:02No, no.
57:04Power to the people!
57:06No one is illegal!
57:08Power to the people!
57:10No one is illegal!
57:12They're not welcome here. They're not welcome in Volca.
57:16They're not welcome anywhere in Scotland.
57:19And we must have to say about her, we will.
57:24The asylum hotels policy has brought anger to our streets.
57:30Hostility to those who've come here for sanctuary.
57:34The UK government says it will close the hotels and crack down on illegal migration.
57:38But will a solution be found that can help bring our communities back together?
58:08To be continued...