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The UK High Court ruled on Nov. 11 that a hotel in the English town of Epping can continue housing asylum seekers, despite months of protests that have fueled a national debate over illegal immigration.
The Bell Hotel in Epping, just northeast of London, has been used since early April to accommodate single male asylum seekers awaiting decisions on their claims from the Home Office.
The local authority, Epping Forest District Council, sought a court injunction to block asylum seekers from living in the hotel. The council took legal action against Somani Hotels, the hotel owner, claiming that accommodating asylum seekers there breaches planning rules.
Somani Hotels and the UK Home Office opposed a permanent injunction. The Home Office said that removing the asylum seekers would seriously undermine the government’s legal duty to provide housing for them.
On Nov. 11, Judge Tim Mould dismissed the council’s claim, ruling that an injunction was not “an appropriate means of enforcing planning control.”
He said there was a “continuing need to provide accommodation for asylum seekers with pending asylum claims so that the Home Secretary can fulfil her statutory duties under immigration and asylum legislation.”
Claims Linking Asylum Seekers to Crime Rejected
Tensions escalated in Epping over the summer after a Bell Hotel resident, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 41, was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Kebatu was sentenced to 12 months in prison in September and put on the UK sex offenders’ register, but was released by mistake on Oct. 24. He was re-arrested after two days and has since been deported.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for 12 months. Crown Prosecution Service/PA
Mould said the Epping council had failed to provide evidence supporting its claim that asylum seekers were prone to crime or anti-social behavior.
He noted that he required an “evidence-based” and “statistically sound analysis” to substantiate such a claim, but added that “there is no such evidence before the court.”
“The fact that persons accommodated in asylum accommodation … from time to time commit criminal offences or behave antisocially provides no reliable basis for asserting any particular propensity of asylum seekers to engage in criminal or anti-social behaviour,” Mould said.
“Persons who are members of the settled population also commit crimes and behave antisocially from time to time.”
Calls to Close Asylum Hotels
Epping Conservative councillor Ken Williamson described the court ruling as a “devastating decision for local democracy” and said “the trauma and disruption” for the residents is “unacceptable.”
He called on the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to reconsider the government’s position.
“The asylum system is broken. Fix the real problem. Close the hotels now,” Williamson said.
The so-called “asylum hotels” were introduced as a short-term measure under UK rules, where new arrivals who cannot support themselves are placed in initial accommodation before being moved to longer-term housing managed by providers on behalf of the Home Office.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood Peter Nicholls/PA
At its peak in 2023, more than 400 hotels were used for this purpose, costing nearly 9 million pounds (about $12 million) a day. The UK will close all asylum hotels before the next election in 2029, Chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged in June.
Meanwhile, more than 39,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK in small boats so far this year, according to Home Office figures.
Following the ruling on Tuesday, a Home Office spokesperson said the government is “furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels” in the UK.
“Work is well underway to move asylum seekers into more suitable accommodation, such as military bases, to ease pressure on communities across the country,” the spokesperson said.
“We are working to do so as swiftly as possible as part of an orderly, planned and sustained programme. This judgment allows us to do that.”
Evgenia Filimianova is a UK-based journalist covering a wide range of international stories, with a particular interest in foreign policy, economy, and UK politics.
