> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theoceaniacables.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 149 Migrants Land in Gosport, Town Put Under Dispersal Order - URL: https://www.theoceaniacables.com/149-migrants-land-in-gosport-town-put-under-dispersal-order/ - Published: 2026-10-06T07:51:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-06T07:51:40.000Z - Description: Police imposed a town-wide order hours before 149 people were brought ashore. 12 arrests followed. Reform UK calls it state-sponsored incitement. - Author: The Oceania Cables - Tags: UK, Immigration ## **Summary:** The Home Office said 149 migrants were picked up in a mid-Channel rescue by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, working alongside a French vessel, and brought ashore at Gosport, Hampshire, on the night of 4 October 2026\. The News reported the landing at 22:20 at Fort Blockhouse, a former Ministry of Defence site beside Haslar Marina, pictured the arrivals leaving on buses, and later reported the group in Kent being processed. The Home Office confirmed the number and said the arrivals would be transported to Kent. Its statement described contingency plans for small boat arrivals but said nothing about why Gosport was chosen. Asked directly, a spokesperson said the department does not comment on operational processes. Hampshire Constabulary published a dispersal authorisation covering the whole town before the boats arrived, and said five people were issued with directions to leave under it. Anti-illegal immigrant demonstrators gathered at the marina through the night. The BBC reported that the crowd mostly remained peaceful; Assistant Chief Constable Simon Dodds said a number of incidents were violent public disorder, and twelve people were arrested. Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative member of Parliament for Gosport, said she had been given no warning that the boat would land in Gosport. She was joined by the council leader and the police and crime commissioner in calling for boats to be taken to Dover by water. Reform UK called the operation state-sponsored incitement. Hampshire had seen two earlier approaches in four weeks: Eastney on 6 September, and a planned Gosport arrival on 22 September that was diverted to Dover. ## **Detailed Report** ### **1\. 149 Migrants Brought Ashore at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport** The News reported that a small boat carrying 149 migrants was brought ashore at Fort Blockhouse in Gosport at 22:20 on 4 October, that Home Office teams were waiting, and that police closed and blocked Haslar Bridge. Fort Blockhouse is a former Ministry of Defence base beside Haslar Marina, at the Gosport entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. The boat had launched from the Normandy coast. The BBC said the dinghy appeared to have set off from near Utah Beach on Sunday morning, citing ship-tracking data. The News reported that the French tug Abeille Liberté shadowed the vessel to the edge of French waters, and that the RNLI took over in English waters. The Home Office described the operation as a mid-Channel rescue carried out alongside a French vessel. The BBC reported the next morning that the arrivals had been taken to a processing centre in Kent. The News carried a statement from a spokesperson: > *"We have established contingency plans to make sure we can securely disembark, check and process all small boat arrivals. Migrants will be transported to short term holding facilities in Kent where they will be processed as normal and undergo stringent health, security and biometric checks."* Asked why Gosport had been chosen, a spokesperson said the department does not comment on operational processes. ### **2\. Town-Wide Dispersal Order and Two Other Powers Placed on Gosport in Advance** Hampshire Constabulary published three sets of public-order powers for Gosport about four hours before the boats arrived. The statement was carried by The News. It said the force was working with partner agencies after a report of a small boat crossing, and had deployed officers to support them in the event of an emergency at sea. The force named the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the RNLI and Border Security Command. The first power was a direction under Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986\. It sent anyone wanting to gather to a designated area inside Walpole car park, and made non-compliance an arrestable offence. The second barred face coverings used to conceal identity during protest activity in Gosport and Portsmouth, under Section 158 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 and Section 60AA of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and let officers require their removal. The Section 14 direction and the face-covering powers ran until 16:00 on 5 October. The widest was a dispersal authorisation under Section 34 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which ran until 07:00 on 6 October. Section 34 does not impose a curfew. It allows an officer of at least the rank of inspector to authorise, for no more than 48 hours in a named area, a power under Section 35 by which a uniformed constable may direct a person in a public place to leave and not return. The constable must have reasonable grounds to suspect that the person's behaviour has contributed, or is likely to contribute, to members of the public being harassed, alarmed or distressed, or to crime or disorder, and must consider the direction necessary. The authorising officer must have particular regard to the rights to expression and assembly under the European Convention on Human Rights. The authorisation covered the whole town; the direction to leave applies only to individuals who meet that behaviour test. The force said five people were issued with Section 35 notices. ### **3\. Anti-Illegal Immigration Protesters Gather on Haslar Road at Gosport** Word of the landing spread through Gosport during the afternoon, and by evening anti-illegal immigrant demonstrators had gathered on Haslar Road, the route out of the marina. Hampshire Police put the number at about 350\. A police cordon was in place, and the BBC described scuffles, flares and an atmosphere that mostly remained peaceful. Some protesters stopped police vans by standing in front of them and chanting "shame on you" and "deport the lot". The force said the crowd dispersed by 02:00. A force spokesperson said a small number of officers were treated at the scene for injuries, and that no one from any agency or the public was seriously injured. Officers assisted a person with chest pains before South Central Ambulance Service provided treatment. The force confirmed a report by Metro that officers used pepper spray on one occasion. The coaches left in the early hours of 5 October. Footage posted by Southampton Times, an independent local account on the social media platform X, showed four coaches leaving behind police motorcycle outriders and a line of police vans. The force has not said how many coaches were involved. The News reported that the group was later in Kent being processed. ## ### **4\. Twelve Arrested After Gosport Disorder; Six for Assaulting Officers** The BBC reported twelve arrests, eleven men and one woman. All were in custody on the afternoon of 5 October. No charge decision has been published since. Six were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer or an emergency worker. The others faced a range of suspicions. They included failing to comply with the car-park direction or the dispersal order, affray, racially aggravated public order offences, criminal damage, possessing a pyrotechnic article at a protest, and being drunk and disorderly. One person was held on suspicion of obstructing a highway on Clayhall Road. Several faced more than one suspicion. Five other people were issued with Section 35 notices under the dispersal authorisation. The notices are separate from the arrests. Assistant Chief Constable Simon Dodds said a number of incidents were violent public disorder rather than peaceful protest. ITV News Meridian carried his statement: > *"Violence and criminal damage have no part in peaceful protest, our position on this has been clear that we will investigate thoroughly and take robust action against anyone responsible. Last night saw a number of incidents that were clearly not peaceful protest, rather violent public disorder, and this will not be tolerated as we work to keep our wider communities in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight safe. Our officers did not deserve to be assaulted as they worked incredibly diligently on Sunday to ensure the safety of everyone in the area. Neither do they, or anyone from our partner agencies, deserve to be singled out online or subjected to abuse via social media. We will work with our colleagues across policing to address any online threats that are made. We will continue to review body-worn video footage and videos posted online to identify any further offences and may make further arrests in due course in required."* ### **5\. Gosport Representatives Write to Home Secretary; MP Demands Cost Reimbursement** Caroline Dinenage, the Conservative member of Parliament for Gosport, posted a video on the evening of 4 October, after word spread that a boat was coming and before it landed. The News reported her saying: > *"At around 1pm this afternoon, I contacted the Home Office minister directly, asking for an urgent update. I have still had absolutely no reply. Once again, I'm getting no information from the Home Office about what is happening, where this boat is going, or what their plans are. So, I'm renewing my direct call to the Home Secretary. Any small boat intercepted in the channel, wherever it's heading, should be taken directly to Dover by water."* She told The News that she, the council leader Zoe Huggins and the police and crime commissioner Donna Jones had written to the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to say Gosport was not a suitable location to land the boats, because it is a peninsula with inadequate transport links. She said local people were right to feel angry. The next day, with the landing over, she asked the Home Office to reimburse Gosport Borough Council for clean-up costs and the police for policing costs. She also asked why the vessel had not been diverted to Dover, as the previous one had been. Jones, the elected police and crime commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, called on the Home Secretary to intervene so that Border Force, the agency that polices Britain's border, had the capacity and the vessels to transfer people on the water to Dover. The BBC reported her saying: > *"No sites across the southern coastline of Britain should be used as 'landing sites'. We are not equipped and we do not have the resources to keep policing this."* > *"Each protest is costing me £150,000 of taxpayers' money from my police budget which I can ill afford to spend. That means there is less police officer time on the streets of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight - urgent action is needed. This has got to stop."* Huggins, the Conservative leader of Gosport Borough Council, told the BBC what the council wanted. > *"Our call to action is that Border Force have bigger boats, they intercept and they take them straight to Dover to a processing centre, that they do not choose Gosport as a initial reception. That's just not on. The Home Office and Border Force need to have a grip on this."* ## ### **6\. Reform UK Calls the Operation State-Sponsored Incitement** Before the boats arrived, George Madgwick, the party's leader in Hampshire, posted that the situation was "an absolute shambles" and that docking in Portsmouth Harbour, the home of the Royal Navy, would be disgusting. Zia Yusuf, a Reform UK spokesperson, spoke at Haslar Marina on the afternoon of 5 October. The News reported him saying: > *"What we're seeing in Gosport is another catastrophe. Andy Burnham is laying on yet another police escort for illegal migrants, mostly military-aged men who are breaking into this country."* > *"I call it state-sponsored incitement because Andy Burnham is inciting disorder."* > *"The person responsible for this today is the man who can stop it all with a phone call or at the stroke of a pen, and that is the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham."* No official statement has given the sex or ages of those brought ashore. ### **7\. Third Small Boat Approach to Hampshire in Four Weeks** The 4 October landing was the third Hampshire approach in four weeks, and the first at Gosport in which people came ashore. On 6 September, Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats [brought a crossing ashore at Eastney, Portsmouth](https://www.theoceaniacables.com/crowd-disrupts-migrant-transfer-after-portsmouth-landing/), after Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton had refused a landing. Hampshire Constabulary placed a dispersal order on the area, and Border Force later confirmed that the people from the boat had been transported outside Hampshire for processing. On 22 September, Caroline Dinenage said the Home Office had told her it was increasingly likely a small boat would be disembarked at Gosport. She said she was then told Border Force had intercepted the boat and was taking those on board to Dover by water. The BBC reported that 51 people arrived in Dover at 00:30 on 23 September after more than 30 hours at sea, and that police arrested six protestors in Gosport that night. ### **Conclusion** The Home Office brought 149 migrants ashore at Fort Blockhouse on 4 October and would not say why Gosport was chosen. It said they would be transported to short-term holding facilities in Kent. Twelve people were arrested, and no charge decision has been published. Hampshire Constabulary said it will review body-worn video and footage posted online and may make further arrests. Gosport's MP, council leader and police and crime commissioner have renewed their call for boats to be taken to Dover by water, and the Home Office has been asked to reimburse the cost of policing and cleaning up. With three approaches to Hampshire in four weeks, the Home Office has not said whether the town will be used again.