EPPING
\nBritain\u2019s government was considering Wednesday whether to appeal a court ruling blocking the housing of asylum seekers in a flashpoint hotel, as it scrambled to come up with contingency plans for the migrants.
\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour administration braced itself for further legal challenges from local authorities following Tuesday\u2019s judge-issued junction that has dealt it a major political and logistical headache.
\nAnti-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.
\nSecurity minister Dan Jarvis said the government was weighing challenging high court judge Stephen Eyre\u2019s granting of a temporary injunction to stop migrants from staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast of London.
\nThe 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.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking very closely at it,\u201d Jarvis told Sky News of a possible appeal.
\nThe interior ministry had tried to have the case dismissed, warning it would \u201csubstantially impact\u201d its ability to provide accommodation for tens of thousands of asylum seekers across Britain.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a range of different contingency options,\u201d Jarvis told Times Radio, adding: \u201cWe\u2019ll look closely at what we\u2019re able to do.\u201d
\nSeveral 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.
\nProtests, 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.
\nHundreds 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.
\nSeveral men appeared in court on Monday charged with violent disorder over the Bell Hotel protests.
\nEpping 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.
\nThe judge gave authorities until September 12 to remove the migrants.
\nWriting in the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper, Farage said the \u201cgood people of Epping must inspire similar protests around Britain.\u201d
\nHe said peaceful demonstrations can \u201cput pressure on local councils to go to court to try and get the illegal immigrants out.\u201d
\nIn Epping, an attractive market town connected to London by the underground, residents appeared to broadly welcome the imminent removal of the asylum seekers.
\n\u201cIt has made people feel unsettled, especially with schools being down there,\u201d 52-year-old Mark Humphries, who works in retail, told AFP on the high street.
\nCarol Jones, 64, said she was relieved at the decision but wondered whether it would ever be implemented.
\n\u201cThey shouldn\u2019t have been there in the first place, but where are they going to go?\u201d the retiree told AFP.
\nLabour 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.
\nThe 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.
\nNumbers hit a peak at the end of September 2023 when there were 56,042 asylum seekers in hotels, and the center-right Conservatives were in power.
\nStarmer is facing huge political pressure domestically for failing to stop irregular migrants crossing the Channel to England on small boats.
\nMore than 50,000 people have made the dangerous crossing from northern France since Starmer became UK leader last July.
\nUnder a 1999 law, the interior ministry \u201cis required to provide accommodation and subsistence support to all destitute asylum seekers whilst their asylum claims are being decided.\u201d
\nEnver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, urged the government to \u201cpartner with local councils to provide safe, cost-effective accommodation within communities\u201d rather than use hotels.
\n\u201cUltimately, 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,\u201d he said Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EPPING Britain\u2019s government was considering Wednesday whether to appeal a court ruling blocking the housing of asylum seekers in a flashpoint hotel, as it scrambled to come up with contingency plans for the migrants. Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour administration braced itself for further legal challenges from local authorities following Tuesday\u2019s judge-issued junction that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-497969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n