Labour has been accused of 'riding roughshod' over a historic naval town that has emerged as the latest flashpoint in Britain's small boat crisis.
Local politicians are urging the Home Office to stop landing Channel migrants in Gosport, Hampshire after a series of disruptive protests and rising community tension.
They have questioned whether the Government is intentionally pushing small boats towards Gosport as a new designated landing place.
There were ugly scenes on Sunday night as 149 migrants who had been picked up mid-Channel were brought into the town aboard two RNLI lifeboats, after a 70-mile trip from Normandy.
Hampshire Police said 12 arrests were made after about 350 protesters gathered on the approach to the town's Fort Blockhouse, where migrants later disembarked.
A police dispersal order covering the entire town, which required people to leave the area if instructed by officers or face arrest, was only lifted at 7am today.
A 38-year-old man today became the first person to be charged over the public disorder on Sunday.
Jamie Bennett, of nearby Whiteley in Fareham, is accused of failing to comply with a prohibited assembly direction, a police power allowing officers to arrest someone they believe is heading to an unlawful gathering.
Gosport's Conservative MP Dame Caroline Dinenage said: 'I hugely appreciate the frustrations of local people and their anger. This is a situation that none of us wanted.
'It's the hallmark of a Government that has completely lost its grip.
'What the Government should have done is put the migrants on a Border Force vessel and taken them to Dover, otherwise they were sending out a message to people smugglers that this is now a viable new route.'
A line of police faces protesters in the town of Gosport in Hampshire on Sunday
Fort Blockhouse, which was largely built in the Victorian era but dates back to the 15th century, is being used as a reception centre for small boat migrants
The area has been a flashpoint for anti-migrant protests since last month when 140 migrants were unloaded at Eastney marina, to the east of Portsmouth.
And two weeks ago there were further scuffles as occupants of another migrant boat were thought to be destined for Gosport, but were later diverted to Dover.
Both previous dinghies had also crossed from Normandy, hundreds of miles from the people traffickers' usual Calais to Dover route.
Cllr Lesley Meenaghan, Deputy Leader of Gosport Council, said Gosport had seen a rise in community tension and racial abuse.
She told a local radio station: 'There's real concerns in Gosport because this is something we've been asking for a long time from the Home Office, and the Home Secretary, to really clarify for us, is this something you're intending? Is this going to become a landing place? Or a designated place? Because we don't want it.
'The egress and access are really poor and we haven't got the infrastructure, we haven't got the hospital, the children's services.
'Most of all, the problem we have at the moment is there's no clarity and there's a lot of uncertainty, and because there's uncertainty, it creates community tension.'
Fort Blockhouse was used as a migrant reception centre for the first time on Sunday.
Councillor Paul Carter, who sits on Gosport Borough Council, accused the Home Office of going behind the backs of local officials.
'They managed to bring in two lifeboats full of illegal migrants and disembark them into an ex-MOD base - it's almost a prime location for them,' he said.
'The Home Office has told nothing to the council here about what was happening here in Gosport, and that is the most frustrating thing as a councillor.
'How can I go out to my community and say, ''This is what is happening,'' and try to get rid of some of that misinformation?
Protesters clashed with police on Sunday after the illegal migrants arrived on the Hampshire coast via small boat
Smugglers are changing their tactics by dispatching Channel migrants from further west along the French coast. Local politicians in Gosport want migrants to be transferred at sea and taken to Dover
'I've had a lot of conversations, especially with residents in the flats here on the Gosport waterfront. There's a lot of worry, this is a very deprived area.
'There's a lot of worried folk, a lot of single mums, single parents that live within sort of hostel accommodation around this area.'
A series of arrests were made throughout Sunday evening into Monday, a Hampshire police spokesman said, with suspects including 11 men aged between 22 and 59, and one 57-year-old woman.
They were held for offences including assaulting a police officer, failing to comply with conditions placed on the protest, criminal damage and racially-aggravated public order.
One protester, Toby, a 26-year-old chef, said: 'I hadn't been to the last ones. There are a lot of people that take it too far, but how can you trust the police when they're doing this?
'They're hiding the entire process from us because they know it's wrong. You see all these people in France and they've just been let in.'
Migrants brought into the port were taken by coach to the Home Office's processing centre at Manston in Kent.
The Home Office confirmed 418 migrants reached the UK on Sunday.
The Channel route was busy again yesterday as Border Force vessels picked up migrants throughout the day and brought them into Dover.
Yesterday's arrivals were yet to be confirmed but were thought to number more than 500.
A Home Office spokesman said: 'We thank everyone involved in this operational response, including the police, whose efforts were instrumental in bringing the demonstration to a safe conclusion.
'We will work closely with partners to ensure public safety is maintained. The government has established contingency plans to deal with small boat arrivals further along the coastline.
'Over 48,000 crossing attempts have been prevented since the election, and ongoing efforts to close every asylum hotel have saved British taxpayers more than £1billion in asylum support.'