Pakistan cricket team mistaken for asylum seekers
As reported by The Guardian:
A group of masked agitators gathered outside a four-star hotel in Portsmouth after reports a group of asylum seekers had been taken there, when it was in fact Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team on a tour.
George Madgwick, a Reform councillor called to the hotel to mediate between staff and the assembled crowd, said it was a “massively unfortunate incident”.
Madgwick said he was at home on Tuesday evening when he was called and told that about 40 people had gathered outside the Marriott hotel, many wearing balaclavas or other face coverings, after reports that asylum seekers were staying there.
He went there and spoke to the hotel manager, who “explained the situation” – the hotel was hosting members of an under-21 cricket team from Pakistan, who are touring the south coast and using the Marriott as their base.
Madgwick said the group massed outside after reports that about 40 men who did not seem to be English had arrived at the hotel, and that the coach which took them was from the same company who moved the asylum seekers who came by boat.
