The British government has directed police to strengthen intelligence gathering after coordinated far-right demonstrations at the ports of Dover and Portsmouth over the weekend drew hundreds of masked protesters opposing Channel crossings by asylum seekers. Kent Police admitted Tuesday that they had received tip-off calls on Friday evening about a potential protest but failed to act on them — contradicting earlier claims of having no prior warning — while Hampshire Police are investigating whether vehicles were deliberately positioned to block access roads and whether the 200-strong Portsmouth gathering was intended to intimidate. Separately, RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) crews who rescued 120 migrants from a large dinghy in the Channel were refused entry to two ports and subsequently harassed by protesters, prompting the charity's chief executive to condemn the abuse of volunteers as "wholly unacceptable in a civilised society."