Masked protesters form a human chain outside migrant hotel as they vow to stop police 'deporting' asylum seekers to Bibby Stockholm barge

A group of masked protesters have surrounded a Bibby Stockholm bound coach sent to collect a group of asylum seekers being housed in Peckham. 

The demonstrators surrounded the coach in a human chain shortly after it arrived at Peckham Road bus stop at around 8am and have blocked all entrances and exits to the vehicle. 

The migrants scheduled to be moved to the government's floating compound in Dorset have been told to remain in the Best Western hotel until the situation has been resolved.  

It is believed the coach was set to collect other passengers on its route to Dorset. 

The asylum seekers had  been told they would be collected on Thursday morning by coach to relocate to the Bibby Stockholm moored at Portland in Dorset.

Kojo Kyerewaa, a coordinator for the protest, said: 'Our friends who are at a Home Office hotel got notification that they were going to be taken to the Bibby Stockholm today.'

According to Kyerewaa, the protest was inspired by a similar one in Margate last week, where a coach was prevented from taking 22 asylum seekers to the barge.

Meanwhile. more than 700 migrants arrived in the UK yesterday after crossing the  - a new record for the year so far.

The Home Office said 711 people made the journey in 14 boats on Wednesday, suggesting an average of 51 people per boat.

It takes the provisional total for the number of arrivals this year so far to 8,278.

Channel crossings had already hit a new record high for the first four months of a calendar year, jumping 34% on 2023 when 6,192 were recorded and up 19% on the total at this stage in 2022 (6,945).

Last year 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK, down 36% on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.

Since the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act became law after receiving Royal Assent on Thursday last week, 1,611 migrants have made the journey in 32 boats.