Councils across England are poised to
take legal action to remove asylum
seekers from hotels in their areas. It
follows the high court yesterday
granting a district council a temporary
injunction to block asylum seekers from
staying at the Bell Hotel in Eping in
Essex. Well, the government says it's
carefully considering the ruling.
Thousands of people have protested near
the hotel in recent weeks as our UK
correspondent Daniel Sanford now
reports.
After weeks of protests in Eping, there
was an impromptu celebration last night.
The demonstrators felt they had achieved
what they wanted.
>> Today's ruling is a seismic event. It
will change everything going forward.
>> That's exactly what we wanted. We've
been waiting a long time for this cuz it
isn't just the weeks that we've been
protesting. Um people raised the
concerns 5 years ago with this hotel.
The local council had won the first
round of a case at the high court
arguing that the Bell Hotel was no
longer being used as a hotel as it was
being used only to house migrants.
The terms of the court order being
celebrated here in Eping tonight are
that all the asylum seekers must be
moved out of the Bell Hotel by 4:00 on
Friday the 12th of September. That's in
3 and 1/2 weeks time. For now, it's only
a temporary injunction ahead of a full
hearing in the autumn, and not everyone
in Eping is celebrating.
>> I think it's a bit of a shame really
because to be honest, I've lived in the
area for quite a long time, and there's
never really been any trouble from the
hotel or the residents of the hotel
until quite recently. So, um, I think
it's a little bit of a shame and I don't
know where the government will find to
put them next, but hopefully it's
somewhere safe. It's not their fault,
you know. They try to like everyone try
try to make a living, you know, they
they try to integrate into the country
as well.
>> In court, Eping Council argued the
change of use of the hotel breached
planning laws. And the judge also took
into account the fears of the local
community.
>> I think people need to be calm and
peaceful. That's the most important
thing. And I wouldn't attribute to this
a full victory. This is the beginning of
a process. We've made an important
stride forward today, but it's not the
final victory. We have to keep working.
>> The case may set an unwelcome precedent
for the government, opening the door to
other councils bringing similar cases.
There are around 200 hotels housing
migrants, some of which have also seen
protests.
There have also been demonstrations such
as in None where migrants are using
other accommodation.
The border security minister, Angela
Eagle, said, "We will continue working
with local authorities and communities
to address legitimate concerns. Our work
continues to close all asylum hotels by
the end of this parliament. But
opposition parties say the government
must move quicker. What really needs to
happen is the government need to have
the courage to set up or to restore the
Rwanda deterrent that was ready to go.
that would have stopped these crossings
entirely and then we wouldn't have the
problem in the first place of having to
accommodate tens of thousands of illegal
immigrants which is really what has
caused this crisis to happen in the
first place.
>> Well, maybe the government should do
what the British people want, which is
to process these people, uh, reject
their applications and deport them.
>> In the long term, ministers still have
to try to keep their promise of smashing
the gang smuggling people across the
channel. But in the much shorter term,
they need to work out where to put the
migrants from the Bell Hotel. Daniel
Sanford, BBC News, Epic.
>> Well, the security minister, Dan Jarvis,
says the government's considering
alternatives for housing asylum seekers.
>> We're looking at contingency options for
where those people can be accommodated.
But we've never thought that hotels were
a long-term sustainable solution for
accommodating asylum seekers. That's why
the government made a very clear
commitment that we're going to reduce to
zero the number of hotels that are being
used to accommodate asylum seekers.
Under the previous government, there
were something like 400 hotels in use.
We've driven that number down to 200 in
part because we've very significantly
increased the effectiveness and the
speed of the asylum decision-making
process, but clearly we'll have to look
carefully at the legal decision that's
taken place in this case and come up
with a contingency option and do that
quite quickly. Well, our political
correspondent Joe Pike has this
assessment of what might happen next.
>> Well, I suppose what happened yesterday
in the high court in London was an
inspiration for some campaigners and
some politicians, but clearly a headache
for the UK government and for the uh
home office. All eyes on one particular
conservative run council Brockbornne
which may follow Eping Forest's lead but
also a number of councils run by Nigel
Faraj's Reform UK are are taking legal
advice and working out what they could
do. Uh certainly for the UK government
and the home office there are three
immediate challenges. Firstly, what do
they do with the 12 or so men who are in
that Bell Hotel in Eping? they have just
three and a half weeks uh before this
court imposed deadline. Secondly, how
will they handle possibly a lot of uh
future protests outside hotels which are
difficult and expensive to police? And
finally, how do they handle what could
be a raft of new legal action even
though we should say there were a series
of not dissimilar cases back in 2022 and
there was nothing like the legal
breakthrough we saw yesterday. Clearly
big challenges uh for the UK government,
but certainly in terms of the Eping
Forest case, this is just round one. Uh
they'll be back in court, both the hotel
owners and the local council in a couple
of months