About 250 protesters staged a demonstration in support of migrants at the London Eurostar terminus on Friday, delaying some departures to mainland Europe.
The activists poured red liquid on the floor of St Pancras station in memory of migrants who have died trying to use the Channel Tunnel to enter Britain, and carried banners reading “Your borders kill” and “Protect people, no borders”.
“We demand that the UK and the US and the EU open their borders to all migrants and refugees,” said one protester, who declined to be named.
“We demand that Theresa May shuts down all detention centres and end all deportation,” the protester added, referring to the British interior minister.
Some 50 policemen stood guard at the rally, which lasted about an hour and ended peacefully.
Some passengers were blocked from boarding trains during the protest and Eurostar said the rally caused minor delays to departures, but that services had returned to normal by 1930 GMT.
The protest came a day after a Syrian migrant was hit by a car on a motorway close to the Channel Tunnel near Calais — the 15th person to die trying to reach Britain from the northern French port since June.
Thousands of people from Africa, the Middle East and Asia are camped in slum-like conditions near the Tunnel entrance in France trying to enter Britain, where many have family and work is thought easier to find.