LONDON, Nov 11, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A UK high court judge ruled Tuesday that asylum seekers can continue to be housed in a hotel northeast of London which was the target of anti-immigration protests earlier this year.

The local council in Epping had launched a legal challenge to block the use of the Bell Hotel as asylum accommodation, after violent protests broke out in July and August over accusations that one of the hotel's residents sexually assaulted a teenage girl.

Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was convicted and later deported for sexually assaulting the girl and a woman.

Judge Justice Timothy Mould dismissed Epping Forest District Council's bid on Tuesday, the latest in the legal saga which has engulfed the hotel and its residents.

The council was initially granted a temporary injunction to stop the hotel from housing 138 asylum seekers, but that was overturned after the interior ministry appealed.

Mould ruled that the hotel had not breached planning controls and could continue to be used as a contingency accommodation.

He acknowledged the "continuing need for hotels as an important element of the supply of contingency accommodation to house asylum seekers."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government, under pressure to curb immigration levels, has vowed to end the much-criticised use of hotels for this purpose by 2029.

As of June 2025, around 35,000 asylum seekers were being accommodated in under 200 hotels, according to the judge.

The decision was a "slap in the face to the people of Epping", said shadow interior minister Chris Philp.

Epping councillor Ken Williamson urged the Home Office to "reconsider" its position, adding that the council was "bitterly disappointed".

A bitter national debate over immigration policy has been raging in the UK, as frustration grows over thousands of migrants crossing the Channel from France in small boats or living in government-provided accommodation while they await a decision on their asylum claims.