Asylum seekers set to be removed from Bell Hotel after High Court ruling
Epping Forest District Council had asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping.
The injunction means the hotel's owner, Somani Hotels Limited, has to stop housing asylum seekers there within 14 days.
The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Eyre granted the temporary injunction, but extended the time limit by which the hotel must stop housing asylum seekers to September 12.
Several protests and counter-protests have been held in the town since a then-resident at the hotel was accused of trying to kiss a teenage girl.
Ethiopian man Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, has been charged with three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence.
A second man who resides at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, has separately been charged with seven offences.
The council said last week it was seeking an injunction due to 'unprecedented levels of protest and disruption' in connection with the hotel.
At a hearing on Friday, barristers for the council said that the site's 'sole lawful use' was as a hotel and that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules by using it to house asylum seekers.
Philip Coppel KC said: 'There has been what can be described as an increase in community tension, the catalyst of which has been the use of the Bell Hotel to place asylum seekers.
He stressed: 'It is not the asylum seekers who are acting unlawfully. It is the defendant, by allowing the hotel to be used to house asylum seekers.'
Piers Riley-Smith, for Somani Hotels, said the disagreement with government policy doesn't 'justify a draconian injunction'.
He also said that contracts to house asylum seekers were a 'financial lifeline' for the hotel, which was only 1% full in August 2022, when it was open to paying customers. More Trending
Authorities were previously investigating a 'racially motivated' attack against security staff at a migrant hotel after video of the bloodied workers went viral.
Two hotel workers who had just got off the bus to begin their shift at the Essex hotel were 'set upon by a group of men', mistaking them for guests at the hotel.
In the vile video, men shout: 'Go home you c***.'at the hotel security worker who is heavily bleeding from the face.
Another woman rages: 'That's what happens when you're an illegal immigrant' at the worker who is escorted into the hotel with blood spattered across his white shirt.
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