Protest march coming to town
Boston immigration group protest
Protestors are planning to take to the streets of Wisbech in a bid to stop the influx of migrant workers into the UK.
A group, which started in Boston, and has hundreds of supporters, has scheduled a protest on May 25 before taking their fight to Westminster.
A Facebook group run by the protest organisers, debating immigration issues in Wisbech, has gained massive support in the last week, doubling the number of members in the wake of two murders in the town.
Feelings have been running high in Wisbech for sometime and have escalated in the wake of the murders of Una Crown and Virginja Jurkiene but police stress they are not linking these two deaths.
However, this has not stopped the ‘Wisbech Immigration Issues’ group attracting more than 800 members, with people sharing their own – mostly negative – views and opinions on the migrant population.
The group is linked with similar set-ups in Boston and Spalding and a static protest was held in Boston in November. It saw around 200 people come together to debate Britain’s involvement in the EU and called for a halt to more immigration.
Spokesperson Dean Everitt, one of the protest organisers, said the Wisbech protest will follow one in Spalding on April 20.
Mr Everitt told the Citizen: “Everyone is fed up to the back teeth with migration. There are so many people unemployed, how are young people supposed to find work? Yet they’re still letting Eastern Europeans in to find work.”
He stressed they are a non-racist movement and are not calling for all migrants to be sent away, but want the Government to realise the scale of the issue and stop more people entering the country looking for work.
News of the protest march has worried some local councillors but police say the Boston protest went off peacefully and urged the organisers to work with officers to make sure the same thing happens in Wisbech.
Wisbech county councillor Steve Tierney has been trying to get his point across on the ‘Wisbech Immigration Issues’ Facebook page but said his pleas to rethink the protest have fallen on deaf ears.
“To come here and march through our town,” he said, “I just worry how things might escalate. I suggested setting up a charity, starting a petition, lobbying their MPs, but I am concerned what they want to do is go on an angry march.”
Fenland police Inspector Robin Sissons is taking a more practical approach and said the Boston protest was peaceful. He sees no reason why it can’t go the same way in Wisbech.
He said: “We don’t want people intimidated or the community fearful. The Eastern Europeans are part of our community as well.
“I have always found Wisbech to be quite an accepting community. For several years we have had a large influx of Eastern Europeans, but racial crime has remained static. Everyone seems to be living in relative harmony, which is good news.
“But when you get rare instances like murder, everyone is very nervous.”
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Weather for Wisbech
Thursday 23 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 25 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 32 mph
Wind direction: North east
