from The Telegraph
Asylum seekers’ rights are more important than the concerns of the people of Epping, the Home Office has declared.
On Friday, a judge will rule whether Epping Forest district council can close a hotel housing illegal migrants or the Home Office can continue to use it to house asylum seekers.
On Thursday, Home Office lawyers told the Court of Appeal that Yvette Cooper had a duty as Home Secretary to prevent asylum seekers from being made destitute under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and so they should continue to live at the Bell Hotel.
They claimed this responsibility trumped the council’s powers to close the hotel, which has been at the centre of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker living there was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
On Thursday night police clashed with protesters who tried to swarm the hotel in a fresh protest.
But government lawyers said the “relevant public interests in play are not equal” and “are fundamentally different in nature”.