India, Sept. 8 -- The British Government on Monday condemned the "intimidating and thuggish behaviour" of anti-immigrant demonstrators who converged on a port in southern England where migrants were brought ashore after crossing the English Channel.

Hundreds of protesters, many dressed in dark clothing and wearing masks, faced off with police in Portsmouth late Sunday in an attempt to prevent lifeboats from bringing the migrants to land.

They then tried to block buses carrying the new arrivals to a processing facility for asylum seekers. "The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but it must never cross a line into disorder," the Government said in a statement. The Portsmouth protest came a day after hundreds of mas...