EXCLUSIVE: About 200 angry locals and their supporters have descended on a hotel in Epping being used to house asylum seekers.
Furious protesters have clashed with police and counter-protesters outside a migrant hotel in Essex. Locals opposed to migrants being housed at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, on Thursday gathered outside the venue, where they were met by anti-racism counter-protesters.
Officers struggled to keep the crowds back at points as protesters screamed, “Shame on you”, in the direction of the counter-protesters and police. The Express saw one officer hit in the head by a projectile thrown from someone in the crowd.
Protestors outside the Bell Hotel, Epping (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
The clash in the usually quiet, leafy town come after another protest outside the same hotel on Sunday (July 13). Two security guards were seriously assaulted by a group of men at a bus stop in the town.
Protests erupted after an asylum seeker was charged by police with three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, appeared at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (July 10) and denied all the alleged offences. He was denied bail and remanded into custody.
Essex Police said a man was arrested on suspicion of affray at today’s protest after reports of the assault near The Bell Hotel on Sunday. Some protesters set off fireworks and threw eggs, according to the police.
James Regan, a local Reform UK councillor, told the Express: “I’m here to protest against what’s going on here and across the country. They’re trying to infuse us with illegal migrants and we’re fed up with it now.”
Giovanni Annelo, from Epping, said: “You can tell Starmer to come and look at what is happening to my town. It’s becoming a ghetto. I can’t even get down my road. I’ve never seen this in my town, ever.”
Police officers stand between protesters and counter-protesters in Epping (Image: Jeremy Selwyn)
Hairdresser, Barry Seager, 58, told the Express that Epping was the wrong place for migrants to be housed. He said: “A market town shouldn’t necessarily be a place for asylum seekers.”
Epping local, Lindsey Thompson, said people in the town are desperate to be heard. She told the Express: “We just want to be heard. We’re hoping that by coming here today in numbers [means] somebody might hear. This is not okay for us. We can’t sustain this.”
Essex Police was forced to block a road with vans near the hotel at one point during the protest, with around 200 protesters having turned up.
People could be heard shouting as they marched down the road as police officers tried to manage the crowd and keep counter-protesters and protesters apart.
The force said it closed a stretch of Epping High Road to help keep protesters and the public safe during Thursday’s protests, adding officers wouldn’t tolerate any criminality.
Ch Supt Simon Anslow said: “Disruption and offending is never an appropriate response, no matter the strength of feeling in this case, and on this issue.
“People protesting peacefully, lawfully and responsibly cause us – and the wider public – no concern. However, we can never and will never tolerate criminal violence of any sort and anyone identified as committing crime will be dealt with robustly.”
