{"id":5270,"date":"2025-08-19T19:45:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/protest-hit-uk-town-wins-bid-to-empty-asylum-seeker-hotel\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T19:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:45:36","slug":"protest-hit-uk-town-wins-bid-to-empty-asylum-seeker-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/protest-hit-uk-town-wins-bid-to-empty-asylum-seeker-hotel\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest-hit UK town wins bid to empty asylum-seeker hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>\n\tLONDON: A UK judge on Tuesday blocked asylum seekers from being housed at a hotel in a town which has witnessed violent protests, dealing a blow to the government.<br>The high court judge approved a request by the local authority in Epping, northeast of London, for a temporary injunction to stop migrants from being housed at the Bell Hotel.<br>The ruling, which came after the interior ministry was unsuccessful in trying to dismiss the case, raises questions about the government&rsquo;s ability to provide accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees.<br>It also comes as Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces serious political heat from the hard-right Reform UK party for failing to stop irregular migrants crossing the Channel to England on small boats.<br>Protests broke out in Epping in July after an asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, which he denies.<br>Since then hundreds of people have taken part in protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel. Further anti-immigration demonstrations also spread to London and around England.<br>The council argued that putting the migrants in the Bell Hotel presented a &ldquo;clear risk of further escalating community tensions.&rdquo;<br>It sought an injunction that would mean the hotel&rsquo;s owners, Somani Hotels Limited, must remove asylum seekers from the property within 14 days.<br>Judge Stephen Eyre granted the interim order, but gave the owners until September 12 to stop housing the migrants.<br>He issued his judgment after lawyers for the Home Office claimed that approving the request would &ldquo;substantially impact&rdquo; its ability to provide accommodation for asylum seekers across the UK.<br>Police say there have been at least six protests in Epping since July 17, with officers and vehicles attacked during some of the demonstrations.<br>Several men appeared in court on Monday charged with violent disorder over the protests.<br>Starmer has vowed to slash the number of migrants and asylum seekers in Britain, as well as reduce legal migration, to stave off pressure from the far-right Reform party, led by Brexit-leader Nigel Farage and riding high in polls.<br>More than 50,000 people have made the dangerous crossing from northern France in rudimentary vessels since Starmer became UK leader last July.<br>Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers before the next election, likely in 2029, in a bid to save billions of pounds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                       <!-- \n                        \n\n<div id=\"POSTQUARE_WIDGET_122392\"><\/div>\n\n --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><sub>Protest-hit UK town wins bid to empty asylum-seeker hotel<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON: A UK judge on Tuesday blocked asylum seekers from being housed at a hotel in a town which has witnessed violent protests, dealing a blow to the government.The high court judge approved a request by the local authority in Epping, northeast of London, for a temporary injunction to stop migrants from being housed at&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/protest-hit-uk-town-wins-bid-to-empty-asylum-seeker-hotel\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Protest-hit UK town wins bid to empty asylum-seeker hotel&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}