MIGRANT hotels are a “national interest” and blocking them could spark more protests, the Home Office claimed today.
The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex , has been at the centre of protests after two of its guests were charged with sexual offences.
Epping Forest District Council last week won a bid at the High Court to block migrants from being housed at the hotel.
The temporary injunction meant that the building has to be cleared of its occupants by September 12.
It also caused a ripple effect across the UK as more councils launched their own bids to boot migrants out of hotels in their towns.
Owners Somani Hotels and the Home Office are now seeking permission to appeal against the decision.
The Home Office is also seeking to challenge the judge’s decision not to let it intervene in the case.
It came after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made a last-ditch bid to intervene in the battle.
Edward Brown KC, for the department, today told the Court of Appeal that accommodating asylum seekers is in the “national interest”.
He also said the housing of migrants at the hotel involved an issue of “critical national infrastructure”.
The lawyer added: “There is a national interest in ensuring vulnerable individuals, namely asylum seekers, are accommodated.”
Mr Brown also claimed that kicking the migrants out may actually spark further protests.
He argued: “The granting of an interim injunction in the present case runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further protests, some of which may be disorderly, around other asylum accommodation.
“This is on the basis that the protests in Epping appear to be a material factor behind the decision now to bring this claim and not to take planning enforcement action as would normally be expected.”
The court was also told “large numbers” of asylum seekers are left “potentially destitute” if the decision goes ahead.
Epping Council brought the original case to court claiming Somani Hotels breached planning rules as the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel.
Robin Green, representing the local authority, said today the council was forced into action when the situation became “intolerable”.
This was after a number of mass protests in the area – including one that saw some demonstrators clash with cops.
It came after Hadush Kebatu was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Kebatu, 41, stood trial this week accused of targeting the teen just eight days after arriving in the UK on a rubber dinghy.
He also allegedly tried to kiss her and told her he wants her babies, as well as a separate charge of sexually assaulting an adult woman.
Another man who was living at the site, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, has separately been charged with seven offences – including sexual assault.
The hotel previously housed migrants from May 2020 to March 2021, then from October 2022 to April 2024.
