Holidaymakers from Yorkshire tell of fear after masked demonstration at Dover
Holidaymakers from Leeds told of how they’d been left scared after hundreds of anti-migrant demonstrators dressed in black and wearing masks blocked roads in Dover.
Footage showed the mob wearing balaclavas gathering at the Kent port on Saturday.
A group was later seen marching through the town and chanting “whose streets? our streets!” and “stop the boats” as dozens of police officers followed.
Masked men could be seen at Dover Priory station at around midday boarding a train, leaving some fellow travellers feeling intimidated.
Steve and Maureen Lightwood, who live near Leeds, had travelled to Folkestone to attend a local rock festival. The retired couple took the bus to Dover on Saturday morning for a day trip, but found themselves stuck in traffic near the port town as protesters made their way to the railway station.
Mrs Lightwood, 78,said: “It’s scary, I’m glad we weren’t on the floor.
“As the police were herding down the road, I could hear them shouting.”
Mr Lightwood, 77, added: “At the time it was scary because we didn’t know what it was. We had no idea at all until we got off the bus. Somebody said to us it’s a demonstration, so that’s all we learned.”
Another traveller, who planned to take a train to Deal for a day trip, said he found the scene at Dover Priory “threatening” and spoke to police officers outside the railway station to ask what was happening.
The man said: “We saw all these men dressed in black and covering their faces like some paramilitary group. (Police said) they are leaving and making it clear they don’t want to be threatening to anyone. But all these men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas is threatening – they can pretend like it’s not, but it is.”
However, a Dover resident said he did not feel threatened and could understand why they wwanted to cover their faces. “That was a protest of the illegals coming over here – they don’t usually do that.
“People hide because they’re sacked from their jobs (if identified).”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said he didn’t approve “of masked people turning up and protesting anywhere, whatever side of the argument they’re on”.
Brighton Labour MP Mike Tapp condemned the “intimidating" protest and said he would be asking “urgently” on Monday about how the police had been seemingly caught unawares.
A Government spokesperson said: “The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but we condemn the behaviour in Dover and the travel disruption it has caused.”