It was the use of this hotel in Essex
that sparked weeks of heated protests.
>> Yesterday's high court injunction
blocking asylum seekers from being
housed there could now have ripple
effects across the country. The hotel
has until September the 12th to remove
individuals. The government says they're
making contingency plans.
>> Well, we're looking very carefully at
the court ruling that was handed down
yesterday. will want to identify a range
of contingency options for how those
people can be appropriately accommodated
elsewhere. But in general terms, we
don't think uh hotels is the right
accommodation solution for asylum
seekers.
>> Two years ago, there were 42 hotels
housing asylum seekers across the UK.
This has now been reduced to 210,
but more than 32,000 people are still
being housed in them. The Conservatives
say ministers need to address the root
cause by taking tougher action on
migration.
>> This hotel was ordered to be closed by
James Cleverly when he was home
secretary. It was reopened under the
last government and that is partly
because they scrapped the deterrent that
we had that would have removed people
arriving illegally. So the numbers have
actually increased to 50,000 in the last
12 months alone. Reform UK leader Nigel
Farage has encouraged people to hold
peaceful protests outside other migrant
hotels. There will be some people who
watch this and say actually that's quite
irresponsible given how heated some of
the protests got.
>> Why is peacefully protesting uh
irresponsible? The notion that worried
mom should be told stay at home, shut
up, don't say anything. We're going to
spend your taxpayers money not only on
continuing to accommodate these people
but the problem is getting worse.
The government pledged to end the use of
hotels by 2029.
Yesterday's ruling may mean ministers
are forced to speed up that timeline.
Jasmine Cameron Cheshi, ITV News,
Westminster.
>> Let's get more reaction now from our
political correspondent Harry Horton at
the home office. Harry, this is quite a
headache for the government.
>> It's a huge headache, Romy. First,
there's a very real practical issue of
what the government is going to do about
rehousing those people currently at the
Bell Hotel in Eping. It has less than
four weeks to find some alternative
accommodation for them. Then there's the
challenge uh if uh other councils are
successful in the legal challenges
they're saying that they're going to
launch. More than 30,000 people are
currently housed in asylum hotels. Where
will they go? ministers this morning
couldn't say what alternative
accommodation uh they would try and move
those people to. And then there is the
issue of protests uh and if they pop up
at other hotels across the country
outside of the hotels uh and although
most of the protests in Epic have been
peaceful, there have been dozens of
arrests. So there's the practical
implications of trying to police all
those protests. Now the government
pledged uh it would end the use of
asylum hotels by the end of this
parliament. That promise uh is now under
intense scrutiny.