London: After fireworks were thrown and a police car was set on fire at an anti-immigration demonstration outside a hotel housing asylum seekers near Liverpool, UK police reported on Saturday that they had detained 15 people, including one child. After initially reporting three arrests, Merseyside Police stated that "15 people have so far been arrested following violent disorder" in the Knowsley region of northwest England.

During the altercations outside The Suites Hotel, police reported that "missiles including lit fireworks were thrown at officers and one of our police vans was attacked by offenders, using hammers before setting it on fire."

According to police, two members of the public and one officer both suffered minor wounds. A record number of migrants are traveling across the English Channel in small boats, which has led to increased tensions. The Conservative government has responded with a contentious plan to send these migrants seeking asylum in Rwanda.

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Suella Braverman, the interior minister, decried the "appalling disorder" in a tweet and added that "some asylum seekers' alleged behavior is never an excuse for violence and intimidation." According to the police, those detained ranged in age from 13 to 54, and two of them were women. They claimed to be looking through footage to locate others.

However, it was unclear who was responsible for the violence. Asylum seeker advocacy groups claimed that the protesters were connected to far-right organizations. A group of troublemakers allegedly entered a planned protest by another group to "carry out violent and despicable behavior," according to police.

According to local media, the Home Office has been temporarily housing asylum seekers at the hotel since last year. Anti-immigration demonstrators smashed a rally held by activists outside the hotel to show support for asylum seekers, which sparked the violence.

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The Merseyside Pensioners Association, whose activists were holding signs that read "Refugees welcome," claimed that the anti-immigrant protesters shouted slogans like "Get them out." The protesters "got to the police van and they set it on fire and it actually broke into a really big fire and exploded," Care4Calais founder Claire Mosely told Sky News from the scene.

Then, according to Mosely, "they broke through again, and they started fighting with the police." "I was really surprised at how quickly things deteriorated." According to police, the protest was sparked by "rumors and misinformation" spread on social media in the wake of an incident last week.

After hearing that "inappropriate advances" had been made to a 15-year-old girl in the Knowsley area, a man in his 20s was detained and released without any further action, according to the police. They urged potential witnesses to come forward and stated that the investigation was ongoing.

Violence is not the solution, and the police stated that those responsible for the violent activity last night used it as justification for their acts of violence and intimidation of bystanders. A group that works to end racism, Hope Not Hate, stated that the protest occurred "in a context of swelling anti-migrant hatred."

After holding a protest outside the hotel last week and distributing flyers in the neighborhood, the white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative denied being the organizer. However, one of its campaigners published a video showing that he was present at the scene on Friday.

Although the protest appeared to have been largely locally-driven, rather than organized by far-right groups outside the area, Hope not Hate noted that far-right organizations like Britain First (BF) and Patriotic Alternative (PA) had paid visits to the hotel in recent weeks.

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The protest occurred in one of the "poorest areas in the UK," according to Chantelle Lunt, chair of the Merseyside Alliance for Racial Equality, who tweeted that far-right activist Tommy Robinson ran for office there in 2019.