Epping, England
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The Bell hotel in Epping, Just outside London, he does not receive new reservations, but is full every evening. This is because, since 2020, it has been used by the government to help shelter the thousands of asylum seekers who arrive each year on the southern coast of England and to be trapped in administrative limbo.
Except hoteliers, no one is satisfied with the current system: not the government and local councils, which must overflow enormous sums to pay for lucrative contracts; Not asylum seekers, who can spend years living in a small room to wait to find out if they can stay in Great Britain; And, more recently in the case of the Epping Hotel, not local residents, some of whom say do not feel safe with groups of young men living in the city.
From time to time, these boiled grievances. In Epping, the flashpoint came last month after an Ethiopia asylum seeker was accused of having sexually assaulted a schoolgirl in the local main street. He was accused of other offenses and awaits a trial. He denies allegations.
Many residents have been exasperated. Some organized demonstrations outside the hotel – supplied by those of the hard right – which have become violent.
But the demonstrators received something to encourage Tuesday, when the council won a decision of the high historic court which will block the owners of the Bell hotel to house the asylum seekers, after the council complained that the hotel was not used for its ends. The 138 people who live there will have to be deleted next month.
The court’s decision rejected this three -star hotel in the center of a political storm, which could cause huge headache for the Labor government. Where these asylum seekers will then pose the most excessor of the problems for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
But for Nigel Farage, the head of brand of the fire of the British Right Reformation Party, the decision was a cause of celebration.
Farage, once the engine of the Brexit Brexit movement and now deputy, applauded what he called a “big victory”. He called for similar demonstrations outside of migrant hotels across the country, to “put pressure on local advice to go to court” to try to block other hotels to house asylum seekers-demonstrations are expected in the places of Great Britain this weekend.
If the United Kingdom’s advice chooses to take similar judicial measures, this could create a major problem for the government, which has the legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers while their complaints are processed. In the United Kingdom, 210 hotels are used to house around 32,000 people. If other advice win decisions like Epping, the government may in a few months find other places to host them while their claims are crawling in the system.
Mohamed Khador said it took him three years to arrive from Somalia in the United Kingdom. The longest that the 24 -year -old spent anywhere in Austria, where he worked briefly as a washer of dishes, but above all he was still in motion. Upon his arrival in Dunkirk, in the north of France, he had saved around $ 1,000. This was enough to buy him a space on an abandoned canoe, with around 70 others, hoping soon to see the white cliffs of England. The trip through the canal was “scary, painful, cold,” Khador told CNN.
When he arrived four months ago, he was taken to a treatment center. Since then, he has lived at the Bell Hotel, unable to work legally – asylum seekers were stripped of the right to work in 2002 as part of the British government attempts to dissuade illegal immigration.
At first, things were “normal,” he said. While residents would play cricket, he would play football with others staying at the hotel. “We come out. No one cared about it,” he said.
Then came what he calls “the incident”, which seemed to have become a touchstone in the collective spirit of the city.
In July, Hadush Kebatu, a 38 -year -old man of Ethiopia, was accused of sexual assault, harassment and incentive to a girl to engage in sexual activity. She was 14 years old.
Eddie and Elaine, a couple who have lived in the region for 15 years and refused to give their surname, said that the last few weeks have been a turning point, after years of relative calm.
“This summer is the worst, with problems,” Elaine told CNN. “No one, really, think it’s a good idea to have 150 men in a place like that, at the corner of a city, right next to the school.”
The day after the court’s decision, many in the city made their feelings known. Dozens of people passed the Bell Hotel, a horny for an apparent celebration. Others called “Get Starmer Gone” and, “almost time, get rid of” them “. There have been several noisy songs of “Niiigel”, in support of frage, one of a selected number of British politicians that the public feel known on a first name.
For Khador, “the incident” has also changed everything. He said people had threw cans of beer while going to the local store; Others scream “Scum” while they pass.
“They say that you are innocent until it is guilty. It is like the opposite of this now. It is as if you were guilty until it is innocent. For the moment, you are only an immigrant. You are guilty.”
The road which extends from the city center to the Bell hotel has, in the past two weeks, bordered by the white and the red of the flag of England of St. George.
“I think it’s great,” said a passerby. “These are our streets.”
But others were discreetly disturbed by the manifestations of nationalism, which some feared could have a ugly advantage. A man said he didn’t want to be quoted because, if he expressed support for migrants, he feared becoming a target for demonstrators who had recent nights demonstrated outside the hotel.
“It’s a small town. People speak. Everyone knows where everyone lives, “he said.
Although Farage called for “peaceful” demonstrations across the United Kingdom, recent demonstrations have not always been peaceful.
Last summer, the United Kingdom saw demonstrations turning into sudden violence and outright racism when disinformation helped to fuel anti-immigration riots across the country. The murder of three daughters in Southport, in northern England, in a yoga class on the theme of Taylor Swift last July, led to generalized disorders, with dozens arrested. In a case, the demonstrators set fire to a hotel used to house asylum seekers while people were still inside.
Far-right activists have been accused of having used social media platforms to spread disinformation, in particular wrongly claiming that the Southport striker was an immigrant who had illegally arrived in the United Kingdom. In reality, the man found guilty of murders was adolescence born in the Welsh capital cardiff of Rwandan migrants.
Since the Labor Party came to power last summer, around 38,000 people arrived on small boats; Down against a summit in 2022, but even more than a third of the previous year. Many of them have been housed in hotels.
Recent policies, such as a “one” agreement with France, cannot solve the central problem: thousands of people each year are always ready to risk their lives to travel through the channel.
The frustration of high immigration levels, associated with dissatisfaction with the slow economic growth of Great Britain, has provided fertile land to nativism.
“We are a small country,” said Eddie. “We cannot absorb as much before that changes our entire environment. But we, in fact, were raised here – by our parents, after the Second World War. ”
When he was asked where he thought that those who stayed at the Bell Hotel should be withdrawn, he said: “We think there should probably be special camps. They have had years to think about it … they should build camps to absorb the influx and treat them. ”
The Interior Ministry announced on Friday that it would appeal the court’s decision, claiming that the government has committed to close all asylum hotels by 2029, but that it wants this to be done in “managed and orderly way”. Earlier, he warned that the court’s decision “would considerably affect” his ability to house asylum seekers in the United Kingdom hotels.
These impacts are likely to grow again, because other advice weigh whether their own legal challenges should be submitted. Farage said that the 10 tips led by Reform UK will do “everything in their power” to win similar decisions. Even some labor councils have announced similar plans.
At the Bell hotel, the 80 rooms housing 138 people will have to be emptied on the evening of September 12.
For Khador, the Somali man, it probably means many months before being able, as he sees it, restarting his life.
“I just want to prove that I am not a criminal. Just prove that I can contribute. I am not a freeloader,” he said.
But whether it is in another hotel or a different type of accommodation does not make a little difference. “It will be the same in all places,” he said.
