San Francisco Frontiers - UK set for more legal challenges over migrant hotels

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour administration braced itself for further legal challenges from local authorities following Tuesday's judge-issued junction that has dealt it a major political and logistical headache.

Anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage indicated that councils run by his hard-right Reform UK party, leading in national polls, would pursue similar claims as he called for protests outside migrant hotels.

Security minister Dan Jarvis said the government was weighing challenging high court judge Stephen Eyre's granting of a temporary injunction to stop migrants from staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast of London.

The local authority sought the ruling following several weeks of protests outside the hotel, some of which have turned violent. The demonstrations erupted after a resident was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

"We're looking very closely at it," Jarvis told Sky News of a possible appeal.

The interior ministry had tried to have the case dismissed, warning it would "substantially impact" its ability to provide accommodation for tens of thousands of asylum seekers across Britain.

"We're looking at a range of different contingency options," Jarvis told Times Radio, adding: "We'll look closely at what we're able to do."

Several Reform-led councils, including in Staffordshire and Northamptonshire in the Midlands area of England, announced on Wednesday that they were exploring their options following the court ruling.

Protests, some of them violent, broke out in Epping in mid-July after Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 41, was charged. He denies the allegation and is due to stand trial later this year.

Hundreds of people have since taken part in demonstrations and counter-demonstrations outside the Bell Hotel. Further anti-immigration demonstrations also spread to London and around England.

Several men appeared in court on Monday charged with violent disorder over the Bell Hotel protests.

Epping Forest District Council argued the hotel had become a risk to public safety and that it had breached planning laws as it was no longer operating as a hotel in the traditional sense.

- Small boats -

The judge gave authorities until September 12 to remove the migrants.

Writing in the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper, Farage said the "good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain".

He said peaceful demonstrations can "put pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out".

In Epping, an attractive market town connected to London by the underground, residents appeared to broadly welcome the imminent removal of the asylum seekers.

"It has made people feel unsettled, especially with schools being down there," 52-year-old Mark Humphries, who works in retail, told AFP on the high street.

Carol Jones, 64, said she was relieved at the decision but wondered whether it would ever be implemented.

"They shouldn't have been there in the first place, but where are they going to go?" the retiree told AFP.

Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers before the next election, likely in 2029, in a bid to save billions of pounds.

The latest government data showed there were 32,345 asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March, down 15 percent from the end of December.

Numbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023 when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels, and the centre-right Conservatives were in power.

Starmer is facing huge political pressure domestically for failing to stop irregular migrants crossing the Channel to England on small boats.

More than 50,000 people have made the dangerous crossing from northern France since Starmer became UK leader last July.

Under a 1999 law, the interior ministry "is required to provide accommodation and subsistence support to all destitute asylum seekers whilst their asylum claims are being decided".

Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, urged the government to "partner with local councils to provide safe, cost-effective accommodation within communities" rather than use hotels.

"Ultimately, the only way to end hotel use for good is to resolve asylum applications quickly and accurately so people can either rebuild their lives here or return home with dignity," he said Tuesday.

L.Nguyen--SFF