Hundreds of anti-migration protesters have clashed with police in the UK after a mega-dinghy carrying 140 illegal migrants arrived from France.Some 500 demonstrators are believed to have joined the protests in Portsmouth on England’s south coast on Sunday night, local time.They were dressed in black, as were protesters who blocked the Port of Dover a day earlier.The giant dinghy was intercepted early on Sunday morning and the voyage was believed to have been the longest-ever crossing of the English Channel undertaken by people smugglers, according to The Telegraph.Demonstrators blocked roads in and out of Eastney marina, where the illegal arrivals are thought to be held.Cops used riots shields and pepper spray to force crowds back. The police cordon eventually broke due to the sheer number of protesters, and many made their way inside the marina compound.The dinghy was escorted by UK rescue boats after being spotted by the French coastguard in the Channel earlier in the day.At least 30 people were thrown off the boat into the sea because it was so overcrowded, according to French officials.The migrants will be transferred to a facility in nearby Kent for processing, which is routine procedure for small-boat arrivals.They were taken to shore in Portsmouth in two RNLI lifeboats after being rescued from a single dinghy south of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel.According to The Telegraph, people smugglers have started loading more migrants on fewer but larger boats partly because of the success of law enforcement efforts in disrupting boat and equipment supply chains.People smugglers are also said to be launching taxi boats further west to avoid increased numbers of police on the beaches and to evade interception on the water by a new seaborne police unit.Clips circulating online show angry crowds confronting police and hundreds of protesters reaching what appears to be the compounds of Eastney marina.In another, a brazen grandmother canoes past police lines to provide protesters with food and battery packs. Footage also shows police and protesters facing off with each other in the sea near Portsmouth. Police can be seen splashing water on protesters, who then responded by splashing back.A protester, who did not want to be named, told The Telegraph she wanted to stop migrants coming in.“We don’t need any more people in Hampshire,” she said.Another man, who gave his name as Matt, said: “People aren’t taking too kindly to it”.Daniel Thomas, known as Danny Tommo, an associate of hard-right activist Tommy Robinson, used a livestream to encourage people to travel to Portsmouth to join the protest.“Roads are all blocked, they are never going to be able to leave here,” Mr Thompson said.“It was only yesterday (at the protests in Dover) when we warned them that we will not accept this any more, and that this is no longer an option to tell us that the boat numbers are down.“This isn’t about the numbers being down … this is about understanding that this has to come to an end now.”Reform UK leader and long-time anti-migration campaigner Nigel Farage said the arrival of the mega-dinghy was a “joke”.“This week [UK Prime Minister] Andy Burnham struck an agreement for 45 more officers on French beaches,” he said.“Today a boat launched from Baie de Seine, 170 miles from Calais, arriving on the beaches of Hampshire for the very first time. This is a joke. Only Reform will send the boats back,” he said.Hampshire Police are asking people to avoid the area and issued a dispersal order until Monday evening, local time.“Anyone who refuses to comply with the direction to leave the area is liable for arrest,” a police spokesperson said.“We can also confirm that Border Force has advised us that individuals will be transported outside of Hampshire for processing in the normal way after they have been safely disembarked.”The UK’s Home Office said the government was bearing down on dangerous small boat crossings and working to restore control at the border.“Joint efforts have seen over 48,000 crossing attempts prevented and 1100 boats and engines seized since the election,” a spokesperson said.“We are making progress, with the number of small boat crossings down this year and the lowest number recorded for the month of July since 2020.“But we must go further, which is why we have signed a payment-by-results deal with the French to put 40 per cent more boots on the ground on French beaches.”On Saturday, Dover was brought to a standstill as hundreds of masked “stop the boats” protesters blockaded roads and the country’s busiest ferry.The rally prompted long queues as trucks and holiday-makers struggled to access the port.Chants of “stop the boats” and “whose streets? Our streets” could be heard from the crowd during the chaos.The Labour government said in a statement that the “right to peaceful protest is fundamental to our democracy, but we condemn the behaviour in Dover and the travel disruption it has caused”.Dover and Deal MP Mike Tapp said the incident, which started at about 7am, caused “absolutely awful disruption” for residents.“I am fed up with idiots coming to Dover,” he wrote on social media.“In this instance, it would appear that the police didn’t know about it, and the resources were pretty thin on the ground, to be quite honest from what I saw.”Anti-immigration protests are common in Dover, because it’s where migrants picked up from small boats in the English Channel are first brought to shore.