Asylum seekers will be removed from an Essex hotel after a council was granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking them from being housed there.
00:00The Bell Hotel in Epping 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.
00:16A second man who resides at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Shouak, has separately been charged with seven offences while several other men have been charged over disorder outside the hotel.
00:34The council subsequently said last week it was seeking an injunction due to unprecedented levels of protest and disruption in connection with asylum seeker accommodation.
00:49At 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.
01:04In the ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Ear granted a temporary injunction but extended the time limit by which the hotel must stop housing asylum seekers to September 12th, with the council having originally requested 14 days.
01:24Well obviously it goes back to 2020 when we were in the pandemic originally, and at that time it was used for young families, women and children, which is completely different to having it used for single males.
01:36Obviously we have always raised our concerns with the Home Office, whether it had been the previous government or this government, we raised our concerns.
01:43This government decided to start using the hotel again without consultation and purely by instruction.
01:50So they started using it, they didn't listen to our concerns. Five schools within close proximity, a residential care home, lots of residential homes nearby, they didn't listen to us at all.
02:03That's the fundamental difference. If I'm honest with you, I don't think they've actually got a plan. I think that's my real concern. We talk about one in, one out. Well that's a gimmick.
02:11You know, if you talk about smashing the gangs, that was a gimmick. What we really need to see is a government with a serious plan to deal with this problem.
02:21And that obviously comes down to processing where they stay while they've been processed and actually speeding up the system. We're not seeing that at the moment.
02:29Awesome.
02:31Thanks for having me.
02:32How are you doing?
02:34Absolutely.
02:36Well what's the problem between the young babies when I'm impressive and that sort of guards day and that sort of woman can grow a find.
02:43We're not seeing what they might eat later on at the moment.
Be the first to comment