UK councils vow to evict 'migrant hotels' after court ruling

A dozen councils in England are set to take legal action to remove asylum seekers from hotels in their areas after the British High Court ruled on Tuesday that a North London hotel could temporarily reject migrant lodgers.

The judge in the case ruled in favour of Epping Forest District Council after it argued that the town’s hotel, The Bell, had become a public safety risk by ceasing to be a true hotel.

The UK government used The Bell to house undocumented migrants awaiting decisions on their asylum cases. As of last month, the hotel was home to about 140 men.

Protests erupted in Epping in July after a migrant living at The Bell was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl, which he denies.

The anti-immigrant party Reform UK and some Conservative lawmakers have voiced support for the protests and made asylum hotels a core campaign issue.

Following Tuesday’s court decision, Reform UK's leader, Nigel Farage, said that all 12 councils controlled by his party would do ”everything in their power to follow Epping's lead". A Conservative-run council in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, said it was considering taking similar legal action.

The court ordered government contractors to remove the people living at The Bell by Sept. 12. When asked where the asylum seekers would be moved to, Dan Jarvis, Minister of State for Security, told the BBC that the government was "looking at options" to rehouse them in "suitably appropriate alternative accommodation."

The UK government has struggled with a growing backlog of asylum cases in recent years. As a result, the number of migrants entitled to government accommodation while awaiting their decision reached 103,000 in March, up from 45,000 three years earlier. About a third are housed in hotels.