Judge rules that asylum seekers can stay put in Epping hotel

Asylum seekers will be allowed to stay at the Bell Hotel in Epping after the Court of Appeal lifted a temporary injunction preventing them being housed there. The High Court ruled last week that 138 men living at the Essex hotel must leave by 12 September. But they will now be allowed to stay after the government won an appeal against the ruling.

Lord Justice Bean said that the High Court judge who issued last week’s injunction made a number of errors that ‘undermine(d) his decision’. The earlier High Court judge, he said, failed to take into account Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s right to take part in the decision about whether the hotel should remain open. Lord Justice Bean warned that ‘the closure of one site’ could ‘incentivise local planning authorities…to apply to the court urgently’ before the system capacity became exhausted.

This is about as good a result as the Home Office could have hoped for. Government lawyers have always sought to stress the ramifications of last week’s ruling. They warned that, if upheld, it would endanger the system which upholds ministers’ legal duty to protect asylum seekers. In striking down the injunction today, the system of migrants being housed in hotels can continue nationwide. It could prevent other councils from moving to close down asylum hotels in their areas too.

The government’s victory, however, does not come without cost. In preparing today’s case, the Home Office had to publicly make the case that the rights of asylum seekers trumped the rights of local residents in Epping. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said that: ‘This ruling is a setback, but it is not the end. I say to Conservative councils seeking similar injunctions against asylum hotels – keep going!’ Opponents of asylum hotels may have lost the injunction – but they will keep on making the argument.