Yesterday at around 1.30pm approximately 10 UKBA and police officers stopped and questioned people in the area around Elephant and Castle.
They were first seen stopping people outside the shopping centre, near the red elephant statue at the entrance at 1.30pm.
A call out was made for people to go to the area. Anti Raids activists turned up around 2pm. The UKBA and police were at the opposite side of the road to the shopping centre and were stopping and then surrounding people. Those being stopped were made to stand against a wall and answer their questions.
The UKBA had one van and two cars.
Activists alerted others in the area to the presence of UKBA. They explained that people didn’t need to answer their questions and as a result many people just carried on walking.
The police became violent towards the activists, pushing one man to the floor, one into the side of a bus and threatening another with pepper spray. Activists were told they were ‘not allowed to film’ and to ‘let them do their job’!
After 10 minutes or so, the police and UKBA officers came together to discuss what was happening. Immediately after, both the police and UKBA decided to leave the Elephant and Castle area in the cars and van.
No one saw anyone being taken, and it didn’t seem like anyone had been put in any of the vans or cars.