29 December 2024: Guardian: ‘They thought they were going to die’: the asylum seekers who survived rioters trying to burn down their accommodation
Four months on from the far-right violence that shocked the UK, what happened to the men living in a hotel that was targeted?
The Holiday Inn Express on Manvers Way, just outside Rotherham, stands quiet and empty. There are hints that something has happened here: cracks in some of the windows, and round the back, if you know where to look, remnants of police tape. But there are no obvious signs of the violence that took place in August, nor of the danger faced by the hotel’s former residents, who, many say, were lucky to escape with their lives when the hotel was set alight during a far-right riot.
It was hot on Sunday 4 August when what had been advertised on Facebook as a peaceful protest, triggered by the murders of three girls in Southport, turned violent. At its height, about 750 people gathered, some from the local area but many from much farther afield.
The hotel was being used to house asylum seekers – young men and teenage boys who fled their home countries for perceived safety on British shores. Many had come alone, knowing nobody here and with nothing but a backpack.
Trouble began shortly after midday. The protesters were met by about 120 counterprotesters from a local anti-racism group. For about half an hour, a small number of police officers kept an uneasy peace. Then things turned violent. One man, Stuart Bolton, who had driven 50 miles from his home in Lincolnshire despite being banned from driving, was filmed shouting racist insults at a police officer and threatening: “I’ll kill you.”