Epping Forest District Council is set to make a final legal attempt at the High Court to prevent asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Essex. The three-day hearing, beginning Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice, will see the council seek a permanent injunction against hotel operator Somani Hotels, with the Home Office intervening in the case.
The Bell Hotel has been a flashpoint for protests and counter-protests since July, when an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who arrived in the UK illegally days before the incident, was jailed for 12 months in September. A second resident, Syrian Mohammed Sharwarq, received a 16-week sentence for assaulting fellow residents and staff.
The council secured a temporary injunction in August, which would have forced 138 asylum seekers to leave by September 12, but the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling on September 26, calling it 'seriously flawed in principle'. The Home Office argued that the reversal allowed for a 'controlled and orderly' end to hotel use, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated he wanted asylum hotels 'emptied'.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the government, accusing Sir Keir of prioritising 'the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British people'. The protests have spread to other UK cities, with police drafted in to contain the disorder. The Home Office lost a bid to delay Wednesday's hearing by six weeks in September.
