Council leaders weigh up legal challenges to asylum seeker hotels

Key Points

Demonstrations have erupted in Scotland and England outside hotels housing asylum seekers
A council in England has won a temporary legal block on asylum seekers being housed in a hotel
Nigel Farage has urged councils where his party Reform UK holds sway to follow Epping’s legal challenge
The Home Office has warned that injunctions could incite further unrest and hinder its legal duty to house asylum seekers

Local authorities across England are considering launching their own legal actions after a district council in Essex secured a High Court victory temporarily blocking asylum seekers from being housed in a hotel in the area.

It comes after demonstrations have erupted in Scotland and England outside hotels housing asylum seekers – leading to arrests and fears of rising tensions.

Conservative-run Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire said it was taking legal advice “as a matter of urgency” about whether it could take similar action to Epping Forest District Council, which is also run by the Tories.

The demonstrations outside Scottish hotels were met by counter-protests. Stand Up to Racism

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage indicated the 12 councils where Reform UK was the largest party would consider legal challenges following Tuesday’s ruling.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Farage said the local authorities would do “everything in their power to follow Epping’s lead”.

On Tuesday, a High Court judge ruled the former Bell Hotel in Epping must stop housing asylum seekers by September 12.

Farage added: “The good people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain. Wherever people are concerned about the threat posed by young undocumented males living in local hotels and who are free to walk their streets, they should follow the example of the town in Essex.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said ending crossings into the country would “stop the hotels”.

Writing in the Daily Express, he said: “Every illegal arrival must be removed, every loophole must be closed, every community must be protected so towns like Epping are never put in this position again.”

The area had seen thousands of people turn out in protest about the housing of migrants in the Bell Hotel.

Protests have also taken place in Scotland with the group Save Our Future & Our Kids Futures holding a demonstration outside Falkirk’s Cladhan hotel.

On August 9, a demonstration was held outside the former Patio Hotel in Aberdeen. A hotel in the Summerhill area of the city was also the subject to a recent demonstration.

The protests were met by counter-demonstrations.

STV News has contacted all 32 councils in Scotland to ask if they are looking to challenge the housing of asylum seekers in hotels.

What happened in Epping Forest?

Epping Forest District Council had asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel.

The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

In a post on Facebook, Broxbourne Council said: “Broxbourne Council will now take legal advice as a matter of urgency about whether it could take similar action.”

Meanwhile, the leader of South Norfolk District Council, which covers the town of Diss where a hotel housing asylum seekers has also been the subject of protests, said the council would not go down the same route.

Conservative leader Daniel Elmer said the council was using planning rules to try to ensure it was families being housed in the area rather than single adult males. He said to do so, which would effectively convert the hotels into hostels, should require a change of use.

Two men have been arrested and charged in connection with a protest in July outside the hotel in Diss, which houses more than 40 children.

Cllr Elmer told the PA news agency: “We make a big play about integration, and to replace families who have children in the local school system and have integrated into the local community would make no sense.”

He added: “If we can punish people who have put up sheds in their gardens without permission, then we can take action against hotels being converted into hostels without planning consent.”

Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Government will “continue working with local authorities and communities to address legitimate concerns”.

She added: “Our work continues to close all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.”

Lawyers for the Home Office had warned the court that an injunction “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.

Edward Brown KC also said the injunction would “substantially interfere” with the Home Office’s statutory duty in potentially avoiding a breach of the asylum seekers’ human rights.

Several protests and counter-protests have been held in Epping since a then-resident at the hotel was accused of trying to kiss a teenage girl.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has denied the charges against him and is due to stand trial later this month.

A second man who resides at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, has separately been charged with seven offences, while several other men have been charged over disorder outside the hotel.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Justice Eyre granted the temporary injunction, but extended the time limit by which the hotel must stop housing asylum seekers to September 12.

He also refused to give Somani Hotels Limited, the hotel’s owner, the green light to challenge his ruling, but the company could still ask the Court of Appeal for the go-ahead to appeal against the judgment.