Six arrested after ‘thuggery' outside Essex hotel ‘housing asylum seekers'
Essex Police said six people were arrested that evening and remain in custody, including a 17-year-old male on suspicion of causing criminal damage to a police car.
Four were arrested on Sunday for alleged offences during Thursday's protest, police said.
A 16-year-old male from south London was arrested on suspicion of going equipped to cause criminal damage, it added
At 10.15pm, Essex Police said: 'There were angry and violent scenes when a woman walked through the crowds.
'Missiles were thrown at her and a number of individuals were shouting abuse and trying to reach the woman.
'Our officers walked alongside her until she left the scene in order to keep everyone on all sides safe and ensure no-one was hurt.'
It added: 'An officer from Norfolk was struck in the face by a bottle and taken to hospital.'
A Section 35 dispersal order was put in place 'to prevent further crime or anti-social behaviour', and a Section 60AA was activated to give officers the power to make 'any individuals' remove their 'face coverings and balaclavas'.
Epping High Road was closed for 'a number of hours' after people gathered there.
Police said 'all protesters have now been dispersed' at 11.15pm.
Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow said: 'Disappointingly we have seen yet another protest, which begun peacefully, escalate into mindless thuggery with individuals again hurting one of our officers and damaging a police vehicle.
'For anyone who thinks we will tolerate their thuggery – think again.'
Some set off flares in blue and red, while others held signs which read 'deport foreign criminals', 'we go home when they go back' and 'defend our girls'.
Bottles and smoke flares were later thrown towards police vans blocking the entrance to the hotel on the High Road.
This came as a man was charged with violent disorder and criminal damage on Sunday afternoon following previous clashes outside the hotel.
Eight police officers were injured after what started as a peaceful protest on Thursday evening.
Keith Silk, 33, of Torrington Drive, Loughton, was arrested on Saturday, Essex Police said.
The force said on Sunday that the CPS had authorised police to charge Silk with one count of violent disorder and one count of criminal damage.
He was remanded into custody and will appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Thursday's demonstration was one of a series of protests outside the hotel since 38-year-old asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was charged with sexual assault after an incident where he is alleged to have attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
He denied the charge when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
Chief Superintendent Anslow said: 'Individuals who thought that after last Thursday, turned up this evening only to find themselves getting arrested (sic) and we have continued to arrest others throughout the evening.'
He added: 'I would also like to set the record straight around misinformation that Essex Police is anything other than impartial.
'We don't take sides, we arrest criminals and we have a duty to ensure no-one is hurt – plain and simple.
'I know the people of Essex know what we're about so I know they won't believe the rubbish circulating online that is designed to do nothing more than inflame tensions and trouble.
'I think I speak for all of us – including the people of Epping – when I say we've had enough of your criminality.
'But our cells, which have been filling up throughout the evening, are ready for you, so don't be in any doubt that this is where you will be sleeping.'
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Before, I felt safe and the locals were nice': asylum seekers on how Epping protests have transformed daily life
Asylum seekers living in the Essex hotel that has become a target of protests and far-right incitement have said they fear for their lives after being attacked on the streets and, in some cases, needing medical treatment afterwards. The situation for men living in the Bell hotel, where they had previously felt safe, has been transformed since the protests began, according to another asylum seeker who was filmed being chased down the street by men involved in the demonstrations. Speaking near the hotel in Epping, an asylum seeker who had fled war in his home country of Yemen said injuries on his face had been caused when six men attacked him while he was out walking. 'They were in two cars and they were ready. They were waiting for us,' said Nabil*. As he spoke, abuse was shouted from a car driving past. A friend who was with him, Jibreel*, from Kuwait, said those in the hotel were being confined to their rooms during the protests, which are now happening during the week and at the weekends. 'It's not safe for us here and we know this,' he said. 'We're here in the UK for different reasons – in my case it's because of politics and persecution in my home – but we just want to be able to live, to study and do something here. He said he had crossed the Channel in a small boat from France, arriving with the body of a friend who had drowned en route. Police have made 18 arrests and charged seven people in connection with the demonstrations, which have drawn hundreds, including local people as well as far-right activists. The gatherings began after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault, although the far right has targeted the hotel for years. Asylum seekers living in the hotel have told the Guardian they want it to close as they no longer feel safe there. Abdi*, an asylum seeker from east Africa who was chased down the street by some protesters outside the hotel, said he had been unable to sleep since the attack. 'I don't speak good English but I knew some of the swearwords they were shouting at me, like 'motherfucker'. I have been living in the hotel since April and before the protesters arrived I felt safe here and we had no problem at all with the local residents, who were nice to us. 'But when I was chased I felt as if I was running for my life. I am sure it was a racist attack because I am black and the people pursuing me were white and I had done nothing to them. I hadn't broken the law, I make sure I never even drop litter. I was just walking along carrying some shopping. 'But now I feel that some of the protesters want to get people like me. I experienced bad things in my country but here I can't even ask those people who attacked me why they attacked me, because my English is not good. 'I didn't come to this country to cause harm to anyone, just to feel safe. If the police were not here, I don't know what we would do. They are the only thing standing between us and some of the protesters attacking us. Before we used to leave the hotel individually but now we leave in bigger groups for protection.' The protests show no sign of easing, and a major police operation is planned for this Sunday. Counter-demonstrators from Stand Up to Racism are also planning to gather in Epping. The protests are being promoted on Facebook groups, while misinformation is being shared and amplified on X. One Facebook group – Epping Says No! – has administrators from the far-right Homeland party. Asylum seekers in hotels in other areas of the country were watching the protests anxiously and said they were fearful too. However, several of them had signed an open letter, coordinated by the charity Care4Calais, addressed to 'our brothers and sisters in Epping and others in asylum accommodation'. It states: 'We thought we were safe in the UK but now we are afraid again. Let's not allow fear to divide us. Let's keep supporting one another.' Addressing the British public, it says: 'Some of you have shown us great kindness and we will never forget it. Please keep standing up against hate.' Appealing to the UK government, it says: 'While we wait [for our asylum decisions] protect us, respect us and treat us with dignity.' Research shared with the Guardian by the refugee theatre group Phosphoros Theatre found that, of 37 young asylum seekers surveyed, 49% felt mentally affected by last year's riots one year on, and 69% felt loneliness. * Names have been changed
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
Epping asylum seekers afraid to exit hotel during protests
Asylum seekers living at a hotel focused on by protesters have been left too scared to go outside, a charity boss groups have clashed outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, during several demonstrations since 13 Smith, the chief executive of Refugee charity Care4Calais, claimed at least one of the migrants had been chased by protesters while out for a officers have made 18 arrests and charged ten people in connection with disorder outside the hotel on High Road. Tensions heightened on 17 July, when missiles were thrown and constables were hurt during clashes. Mr Smith, whose staff have been supporting the asylum seekers, said the alleged violence left many "too worried" to go outside."It's a pretty depressing situation to find yourself in, when you've already been through significant terrors elsewhere in the world," he said."Some of the residents have told us how they've been chased by the far-right when they simply went out for a walk or to buy milk."It reminded them of the reasons why they've been forced to leave their home countries in the first place," he added. The charity boss said an 80-year-old worker had a brick thrown at him during an episode of disorder outside the seekers have been housed there since 2020, it is on Thursday evening, Epping Forest District Council voted to urge the government to close the hotel, which the BBC understands is housing about 140 venue has been thrust into the national spotlight after a man living there was charged with sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual Kebatu, 41, from Ethiopia, has denied the offences and remains on remand in custody. During the council meeting, Janet Whitehouse, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said: "I agree that The Bell Hotel needs to be closed but we don't know the circumstances of the individuals who have been placed there. "Sadly there are many places in the world where there is conflict and people have to flee."Chris Whitbread, the Conservative leader of the authority, suggested there were "not the facilities here to support them" in Epping. 'Real world consequences' Ben-Julian Harrington, the chief constable of Essex Police, urged people to not spread misinformation online about the to reporters on Wednesday, he said malicious rumours were having "real world consequences", but stressed most protesters had been Solomon, the chief executive of Refugee Council, added on Friday: "Rhetoric that dehumanises people who've come to Britain seeking sanctuary creates a climate where violence can flourish."He accused a "violent majority" of hijacking concerns about asylum hotels, stating their use had become "flashpoints". People living in Epping who have been protesting against the use of the hotel as migrant accommodation have told the BBC they felt less safe in the town since it was used for asylum told BBC Essex: "I walk up and down the High Street all the time. I've lived in Epping all my life, I've never seen anything like this and I talk to people all the time, so I know that the concerns they have are real."Police received 2,000 fewer reports of crime in the Epping district in the year to the end of June, compared with the 12 months to June total, 9,049 offences were reported over the most recent period.A Home Office spokesman said it was working to close asylum hotels and "restore order". Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Forget the White Van Man stereotype. The truth, finds ROBERT HARDMAN, is that the Epping hotel protests are being led by concerned mothers
Civil disorder – or civil war? It could almost be the film set for a suburban apocalypse drama. There are police vans tailing back down leafy lanes all around Epping. Platoons of coppers in full riot garb have been massing at the station, along the Georgian high street and out in the woods since mid-morning. Units have been bussed in from Hampshire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent, in addition to the Metropolitan Police. It's the sort of presence you might expect for a grudge match between Premier League arch-rivals or a full-fat Hamas solidarity parade through central London. Instead, these reinforcements have swamped Sir Rod Stewart 's pretty former home town in semi-rural Essex to help the local force keep an eye on 150 locals standing across the road from The Bell Hotel. What is immediately apparent is that many of the protesters are women and children. Indeed, this whole protest has been organised by women. Many – if not most – of the passing motorists who honk their horns in support are also women, including one who drives back and forth eagerly beep-beeping away in her claret Land Rover Discovery (you can forget the White Van Man stereotypes in this corner of Essex). What has galvanised these residents is a near-universal demand for the closure of The Bell as an accommodation centre for migrants following a recent attack on a 14-year-old schoolgirl. A hotel guest, a 38-year-old Ethiopian man, who had arrived in Britain eight days earlier, has been charged with three sexual assaults and denies them all. Suddenly the debate on small boat migration has become incendiary. Protests here a week ago turned violent when far-Left activists were escorted in by Essex Police to stage a counter-demo. That, in turn, brought out the usual suspects on the hard-Right and things soon turned ugly. By Thursday, though, there is no prospect of trouble because there are no dissenting voices. The rent-a-mob from Stand Up To Racism – a masked offshoot of the Socialist Workers Party – have not turned up. Nor have any hard-Right saboteurs allied to the toxic Tommy Robinson. It is raining, after all. That has not deterred the true believers who have a fervent desire to see The Bell – now fenced off and looking more like a disused military base – either bulldozed or transformed back into the local wedding venue of yesteryear. And I mean everyone. That not only applies to the drenched posse marching on the local council offices, chanting 'Save Our Kids' and 'Starmer Out', but the councillors gathered in the chamber – including Sir Keir Starmer's own man. Epping Forest council only has one Labour councillor, Martin Morris. Even he joins the Tories, Reform, the Lib Dems, the solitary Green and sundry Independents in a unanimous vote to demand the immediate closure of The Bell. In fact, they all demand a lot more than that in a thumping two-page motion which also calls for the closure of another hotel-turned-migrant centre up the road. All media eyes have been on The Bell of late, but the situation is not much better at The Phoenix Hotel. That mysteriously caught fire four months ago, although asylum seekers still occupy most of it. The man charged with arson has turned out to be a guest at The Phoenix who was then generously rehoused at, you guessed it, The Bell. The same man has been charged with trying to burn that down, too. There is a thunderous standing ovation in both the gallery and the council chamber after Tory councillor Shane Yerrell reads out a message from the father of the girl subjected to the recent assault. 'I do not want or condone any of the violence that has taken place at the protest,' says the message from the unnamed dad. 'I just want the hotel to be moved, not only away from our streets, but away from making any other family feel how we're feeling right now. 'It's not fair that the Government is putting our children and grandchildren at risk. I didn't think my little girl's story would be as big as it was.' His daughter, he adds, has been greatly comforted by messages of support and a JustGiving page which has raised £3,000 for counselling. 'Eventually we will get her confidence back to the point where she is able to go out without feeling scared.' The father, it transpires, is actually in the gallery. We have now, very clearly, got beyond the point where the Government can trot out the usual mantra 'It's all the Tories' fault and we've got this migration thing under control ' and expect things to blow over. The default position of the legal establishment, the police and most of us in the media – namely that the main problem is dark online forces stirring up xenophobia – is manifestly no longer tenable. Having spent the previous week in northern France watching the people smugglers, I have spent this week looking at the other end of the equation. I have seen the protests popping up in Epping and Canary Wharf, east London (where a huge hotel has just been commandeered by the Home Office). And there are two very striking trends to this new wave of popular protest. The first is that the protagonists are being open about it. They tell me their names and stories. There is no sense of shame or fear of being branded a 'racist' any more. The second is that this is very much a unisex campaign, if not an overtly female one. One of the main architects of the peaceful protests in Epping is Orla Minihane, a mother of three teenagers and now a vocal council candidate for the Reform Party. 'I think women are naturally more tolerant – we have got to put up with men after all – but when you start to threaten our children, then we snap,' says Mrs Minihane, who is marching through the rain waving not the Cross of St George, like some of the men, but the green, white and purple flag of the Suffragette movement. She's lived in Epping since childhood, has worked for a City bank for 25 years and is married to Scott who owns a building business ('and can't stand this political stuff'). Mrs Minihane says she was appalled by last week's violence in the town and blames Essex Police for facilitating a Left-wing counter-demo which, she says, triggered all the aggro. It has prompted Reform leader Nigel Farage to call for the resignation of the chief constable. 'There was only trouble when the police caused it,' he says. For the Tories, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp says that Essex Police 'lamentably failed to keep the protesters apart'. Mrs Minihane says: 'The day after that trouble I went on our Facebook group – there's about 700 of us – and said we are never going to win if we have more protests like that. We need to change the narrative. So we ordered a batch of T-shirts saying 'We Are The Children's Voice'. And we are going to show that this problem is much worse than people think it is.' She talks of repeated incidents of women being pestered while jogging or walking their dogs and recounts the story of a friend, a mother of four girls. Her 15-year-old, she said, was chased on the local common by a man who, she says, was living at The Bell. 'She told the police, who did nothing at first,' says Mrs Minihane. 'When she went back again, they told her to be careful. They said: 'Remember what happened to those protesters after Southport.' But we're not putting up with that any more.' I later verify the story with the girl's mother. Mr Farage explains that what Mrs Minihane is doing in Epping reflects a broader trend. 'The boats issue is increasingly becoming a female issue. Mums for Reform, call it what you will, is a real thing,' he says, pointing to this month's Tory-to-Reform defections of Laura Anne Jones, a member of the Welsh Senedd, and Westminster city councillor, Laila Cunningham, along with a marked shift in the party's membership. Having been 58 per cent male and 42 per cent female at the last election, he says, it is now 50:50. It's hard to see what more the Tory-run council can do. All are as one when it comes to the failings of the Home Office, which commandeered the hotel without consulting the locals first. 'We are speaking to the Home Office on a regular basis. I have to say to you, at the present time, they have not been overly co-operative,' council leader Chris Whitbread tells the meeting. Holly Whitbread, his fellow Tory councillor (and daughter), is more forthright: 'It is my firm belief that the Government is now treating our community with contempt. Contempt for local democracy, contempt for public safety, contempt for our town which deserves better than this.' The hotel has been the trigger for plenty of other complaints, too. Hairdresser Barry Seago tells me that today alone he has had five cancellations from customers worried about trouble in the town. Locals point to the trouble they have in finding an NHS dentist – hence their fury when they saw a mobile dental unit turn up at The Bell. This week has also seen protests an hour away at Canary Wharf, where the Home Office has taken over the vast Britannia International Hotel, which has 531 bedrooms, as a new accommodation centre. I remember the days when my old newspaper used to hold (rather dreary) office parties there. It might be more Alan Partridge than The Ritz but it's not cheap. As Whitehall maintains its customary reluctance to discuss these things, rumours are rampant that migrants will be housed three to a room, suggesting a new population of 1,500 predominantly young, undocumented adult men with nothing to do. Here, I meet a small group of protesters in the rain, all native East Enders who live around here. Once again, they are happy to be identified. 'You've got working people round here using food banks – my Mum runs one – and then people are being put up here on three square meals a day and we don't know anything about who they are,' says Ben Cavanagh, 45, a scaffolder and father of three. Fellow scaffolder Matthew John-Lewis, 44, says tensions have gone off the scale. 'I'm busting my arse off to pay taxes for all this. I can barely afford the rent on a two-bedroom flat and this lot get given everything,' argues the father of four children. He adds that he does not want his children to be targeted by gangs of bored young men who 'don't understand' British culture. 'And don't anyone dare call us racist. My family were immigrants and I'm three-quarters black,' he says. The hefty police presence here and the even bigger one in Epping are an acknowledgement that we are at a very ugly tipping point. With another Stand Up To Racism protest against the residents of Epping – or 'organised Nazis' as they call them – planned for Sunday, further outbreaks of violence are no longer a question of if – but when.
