1 of 2 | A far right protester displays a flag outside the High Court in London, England, Friday. The UK Court of Appeals ruled that asylum-seekers can stay in a hotel in Epping Forest. Photo by Andy Rain/EPA
Aug. 29 (UPI) — A hotel in Epping Forest, England, can keep housing asylum seekers, an appeals court said Friday, overturning a lower court’s injunction.
The Bell Hotel in Epping Forest is housing about 140 migrants who seek asylum in the country, and the local council sought an injunction against them staying there after a 14-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and a man living in the hotel was accused of the attack.
Protests near the hotel turned violent in July when they were hijacked by supporters of the far-right after asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a resident of the hotel, was charged in July with sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl.
Riot police, with helicopter backup, clashed with protesters in residential neighborhoods and at least 34 people were arrested, police officers injured and vehicles damaged.
On Aug. 20, Justice Stephen Eyre granted an injunction that would force the men out of the hotel, which is being funded by the British government. The injunction would have taken effect on Sept. 12.
Justices David Bean, Nicola Davies and Stephen Cobb said, “If an outbreak of protests enhances the case for a planning injunction, this runs the risk of acting as an impetus or incentive for further protests — some of which may be disorderly — around asylum accommodation. At its worst, if even unlawful protests are to be treated as relevant, there is a risk of encouraging further lawlessness. The [lower court] judge’s approach ignores the obvious consequence that the closure of one site means capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system.”
After the decision, the Home Office Minister Angela Eagle said the housing of asylum-seekers in hotels will end.
“We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions,” The Guardian reported Eagle said. “This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament, and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of [$12 million] a day.”
Kebatu is on remand [in pre-trial detention]. He denies the offenses he is charged with, which were alleged to have taken place just eight days after his arrival in the country, from Ethiopia via France, on a small boat. His trial is set to begin in the coming days.
Mohammed Sharwarq, a Syrian asylum seeker also living at the hotel, is facing seven unrelated charges and authorities have charged several other men over alleged involvement in unrest outside the Bell Hotel.
Lisa Foster, a lawyer representing Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell Hotel, said they are “pleased” with the ruling.
She added that the owners ask the public to “understand that the Bell Hotel has simply been providing a contracted service that the government requires.”