London High Court orders eviction of asylum seekers from hotel
Epping Forest District Council, near London, has won its case, following a month of protests outside The Bell. Other local authorities could follow suit. The British press predicts a headache for the Labour government.
“Protests work,” notes The Spectator . “That’s the lesson that will be learned by the anti-migrant activists who have been protesting regularly in recent weeks outside a hotel in Epping, northeast London. “Thousands have flocked to the Bell’s doors since an Ethiopian asylum seeker was brought before the courts for attempted sexual assault” on a minor in mid-July,” the conservative weekly reports.
On Tuesday, August 19, the High Court in London ordered the evacuation of the facility, which houses around 100 asylum seekers, by 4 p.m. on September 12. The judges “agreed with Epping Forest local council, which argued that using the building for this purpose contravened planning regulations, as The Bell is intended to be used as a hotel,” explains The Daily Telegraph .
This court-issued injunction represents a potential major turning point in the UK's reception policy. Since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, hotels have been asked, in exchange for state compensation, to "open their doors" to asylum seekers, explains The Spectator . Initially put in place by the Conservatives in the context of a sharp increase in irregular crossings of the Man
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