Security minister Dan Jarvis says government is considering options after council granted injunction to stop people being placed at the Bell hotel
Security minister Dan Jarvis has emphasised that the Bell hotel in Epping, which a court ruled on Tuesday will have to stop housing asylum seekers, is a “very specific case” with “a longstanding history of concern”.
Speaking on Times Radio, he said:
This was a very specific case concerning a hotel which, since it opened to accommodate asylum seekers five years ago now, has been the subject to a lot of complaints and protests.
Indeed, there’s been considerable amount of legal debate about its location and use.
There is a short-term challenge to ensure that those asylum seekers who are here are appropriately accommodated, but of course the bigger-picture challenge is stopping people coming here illegally in the first place.
We’re looking at a range of different contingency options following from a legal ruling that took place yesterday, and we’ll look closely at what we’re able to do.
Well, we’ll see over the next few days and weeks. Other local authorities will be considering whether they wish to act in the same way that Epping [Forest] district council have.
I think the important point to make is that nobody really thinks that hotels are a sustainable location to accommodate asylum seekers.