Two London branches of Byron have been forced to close after protesters released hundreds of live insects into the restaurants, part of a growing backlash following the burger chain’s involvement in an immigration sting against its own staff.
Activists from two organisations, London Black Revs and Malcolm X Movement, let out a “swarm of insects” in Byron’s Shaftesbury Avenue and Holborn restaurants on Friday evening.
Other protesters picketed restaurants over the weekend and #boycottbyron has been circulating on Twitter.
Some carefully deployed protest cockroaches seem to have brought a halt to Byron's shaftesbury Ave operations. Lol #boycottbyron
— Jack Sprat (@Jacqueimo) July 29, 2016
Immigration officers rounded up 35 people from Albania, Brazil, Egypt and Nepal in the raid, which took place across London on the morning of 4 July, the Home Office has confirmed.
Staff were allegedly told to attend a health and safety meeting at 9.30am, but immigration officials quickly arrived instead.
In a joint statement published on Facebook, London Black Revs and Malcolm X Movement said the direct action was in response to the chain’s “despicable actions in the past weeks having entrapped waiters, back of house staff and chefs in collaboration with UK Border Agency”.
“Many thousands of live cockroaches, locusts and crickets [have been released] into these restaurants. We apologise to customers and staff for any irritation, however, we had to act as forced deportations such as this and others are unacceptable, we must defend these people and their families from such dehumanised treatment,” the statement said.
#boycottbyron pic.twitter.com/l1QF65Pq36
— gb (@geeeebeeee) July 29, 2016
Michael Segalov, a journalist from Huck magazine, went to one of the restaurants where the activists released the insects.
Protesters were outside urging people to boycott the chain and the restaurant was quieter than might be expected on a Friday night. It quickly descended into chaos when the insects were spotted, he said.
One young protester told him prior to the action: “Katie Hopkins called them cockroaches in an article just a few months ago. We want to show these people what cockroaches really look like, and we’ll unleash them on places like this if they don’t change their ways.”
In response to the continued protests, a spokeswoman for Byron said: “The safety of our customers and restaurant teams is paramount, and our priority is now to work with local police to minimise the risk of further incident.”
