Asylum seekers removed from Essex hotel targeted by far right as Home Office ends contract

Asylum seekers have been removed from the Epping hotel that became a flashpoint for anti-immigration protests across England last summer as the Home Office terminates its contract with the establishment.

The hotel on the outskirts of the Essex town was the scene of increasingly large protests after an asylum seeker who was living there sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman.

Those protests were exploited by far-right activists and became a prelude to nights of violent clashes with police.

However, local people were taken by surprise on Thursday night when Epping district council released a statement saying it had become aware that the Home Office had removed all residents from the hotel.

The council said on Friday morning that the Home Office had confirmed that it was terminating its contract with the Bell Hotel and it would cease being used on 11 July.

The Home Office said on Thursday night that staff and asylum seekers had been removed from the hotel due to fire and safety concerns as a precautionary measure but declined to say whether there were plans for them to return after the work was completed.

People protest outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, on 11 November. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty

People who had opposed far-right activity in the area privately expressed concern that the council had released the statement before there was clarity about future plans for the hotel, saying it effectively created a situation where residents could not return even if their removal was originally to be temporary while the work was carried out.

The high court ruled in November that asylum seekers can continue to be housed at the Essex hotel.

Lawyers for the local district council had sought a permanent injunction against the use of the Bell hotel in Epping, arguing at the high court it was a “feeding ground for unrest and protest”.

Hadush Kebatu, the asylum seeker at the hotel who sexually assaulted the woman and the teenager, was deported to Ethiopia in October.

Protests have continued intermittently outside the hotel, where two security guards were assaulted in what police described as a “racially motivated attack” during the summer. Police were also attacked and made dozens of arrests as the protests spilled over into violence in July.