Outside the Eping Asylum Hotel,
protesters angry at today's court ruling
gathered, cheered on by passing drivers.
The news that for now at least the
asylum seekers inside will stay was not
what they wanted to hear.
>> We want them out.
>> Yeah.
>> Want them out. And it they will get out
eventually. They will get out cuz this
is going to have repercussions and civil
unrest. We're sure about that.
>> Yeah, definitely.
>> And elsewhere apart from Eping.
>> Yeah, it's going to it's going to be all
over now. It's going to be civil unrest.
Definitely.
>> The Court of Appeal lifted last week's
interim injunction which had ordered the
hotel to be cleared. It said it could
incentivize other protests and had
ignored the impact on the asylum system.
If an outbreak of protests enhances the
case for a planning injunction,
this runs the risk of acting as an
impetus or incentive for further
protests, some of which may be
disorderly around asylum accommodation.
>> There have been nearly two months of
protests outside the Bell Hotel, some of
which have been violent. The district
council gave its reaction to today's
ruling.
>> We are deeply disappointed by the
outcome of today's hearing. While Eping
Forest has brought the wider asylum
seeker debate into sharp national focus,
the concern and motivation of Eping
Forest District Council throughout has
been the well-being of our local
residents.
>> While today's decision has been welcomed
by the Home Office, it's gone down badly
with many here in Eping. For now, the
asylum seekers will remain here at the
Bell Hotel until their fate is finally
decided by the courts in October. People
we spoke to in Eping talked of their
fears.
>> Well, I think they'll be disappointed. I
think it's going to cause more trouble.
There might be more protests.
>> I think people in the country are not
being listened to. Not just EP. It's uh
yeah, it's like an epidemic, but no one
seems to be dealing with it.
>> The government has brought some more
time with today's ruling, but the
political fallout on the issue
continues.
>> Well, one migrant charity said today
that it was relieved by the Court of
Appeals ruling. This evening, the
district council here has issued a plea
for calm. As I said in my report there,
the full court hearing into all of this
will now be held in October. So, this
story and the wider issues surrounding
it are not going anywhere anytime soon.
>> Right, Neil in Eping in Essics. Thank
you. Uh, let's get some reaction from
Westminster now with our political
reporter Jasmine Cameron Chilishi.
Jasmine, this might be a win in the
courts for the Home Office, but it
leaves the government with a
considerable headache, doesn't it?
That's right. So, officials in the home
office may be breathing a sigh of relief
this evening. They were facing uh the
logistical challenge of how to rehouse
the 138 asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel
and and what to do if the high court
ruling had set a precedent. Uh now,
responding to the news, the government
reiterated their pledge to close all
hotels by the end of Parliament. Uh
adding that they appealed this judgment
so hotels could be closed in a
controlled and orderly way. Uh so,
ministers now have a little bit more
breathing room in the short term. Uh but
in the long term this whole saga has
really intensified the political
pressure from opposition parties. Uh
leader of reform UK Nigel Farage has
argued that quote illegal migrants have
more rights than the British people
under Stalmer and the Conservatives say
the government has lost control of the
borders.
>> Thanks to the government's own failings,
they're in this situation in the first
place. If they had continued the
previous government's policy of closing
these hotels down, this situation would
never arisen. And if they hadn't
cancelled the Rwanda scheme, by now the
crossings would have stopped. But by
contrast, the numbers crossing the
channel illegally have been the worst in
history so far this year because this
Labor government has completely failed.
Now, this isn't over. There'll still be
a full hearing in October. In the
meantime, when Parliament returns uh
next week, number 10's going to be
really keen to get on the front foot on
this. Now, this follows a summer of
protests outside asylum hotels and even
calls from some Labour grandees uh to
leave the European Convention on Human
Rights, which of course guarantees
fundamental human rights in law. Now,
the government has said that they want
to end the use of hotels, but they know
the public and MPs will be keen for more
detail about how all of this is going to
work in practice and how long it will
take.