A former adviser to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says a ban on housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel in Epping could send a signal that if you protest "loudly enough for long enough then you could get an asylum hotel closed in your local area".

Danny Shaw, who is also a former BBC home affairs correspondent, says the Home Office will have contingency plans in place for what to do with the 138 men housed at the Bell Hotel.

But if the government loses, "they've lost a key legal case", he tells BBC's Today programme.

Shaw says the government has to set out its plan to stop use of asylum hotels by 2029.

"It has been pretty silent, it needs to set out a roadmap" including speeding up asylum decisions, and using more private rented accommodation or ex-military bases, he says.

Muhammad, from Afghanistan, spent six months in an asylum hotel earlier this year and recalls how people would film residents outside his hotel "without permission, using it in a negative way".

We heard Muhammad's story through the Refugee Council, an organisation that supports asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.

The organisation tells the BBC that for as long as hotels remain open they will continue to "fuel tensions and drive communities apart".

"Through our frontline work we see how protests outside asylum hotels can terrify people who’ve already fled war in places like Sudan and Afghanistan," Enver Solomon, Refugee Council's chief executive says.

Muhammad, who has now been granted asylum, says hostility outside hotels "affects people and makes them feel hopeless about the system".

"One of my friends has been in a hotel for more than two years - he is very talented, but the uncertainty is a mental disaster," Muhammad adds.

Ruling won't draw a line under issue of asylum hotelspublished at 13:22 British Summer Time 29 August

13:22 BST 29 August

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

There is political jeopardy in every direction for the government this afternoon.

Ministers find themselves in the uncomfortable position of using European law to help them fight to keep this asylum hotel open, while arguing they are trying to end their use more generally.

One Labour strategist I was speaking to this morning said they worried about the consequences, regardless of how the Court of Appeal ruled.

Their reasoning was that if government wins and the Bell Hotel is allowed to keep housing asylum seekers, public anger would mount and more attention would be drawn to the fact it was Labour fighting to keep it open - while Reform UK and the Conservatives had joined those protesting.

If the government loses, other councils would bring similar legal challenges and wider asylum policy could unravel.

This ruling is the climax of a summer of protests and pressure on the government over immigration. But whatever the judges decide, it won’t draw a line under the issue of asylum hotels.

Many Labour MPs will return to Westminster next week pushing ministers for a tougher and quicker response.

Image source, Reuters

One of the asylum seekers currently living at the Bell Hotel in Epping has spoken to the BBC, and says he and others have been left "in the dark" about their future.

Abdi, a Somali man, who says he was moved to the hotel in May, tells the BBC: "We don't know if one day a bus comes and says we're going out from here."

Abdi, not his real name, adds that closing the hotel would not solve the root cause of the problem.

"If this happens - if we are taken out of this place - then they will surely take us from every place we go to. It's going to be the same," he says.

He says he spent three years travelling to the UK after fleeing a terrorist group, arriving on a small boat he paid €1,000 (£864) to board.

Abdi criticises some of his fellow asylum seekers living at the Bell Hotel, saying he has seen fights, drunkenness and drug use.

The government has pledged to no longer use hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.

Image source, Getty Images

The Home Office and owners of the Bell Hotel have challenged a High Court ruling that would stop asylum seekers from staying at the hotel, which has housed asylum seekers intermittently since 2020.

Here's a brief look back at how we got here:

8 July: Essex Police are alerted to reports of a man acting inappropriately towards a teenager in High Road, Epping.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, who lived at the Bell Hotel, is arrested and later charged with three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and one count of harassment without violence. He denies all the offences.

13 July: Protests, including some violent clashes, begin at the hotel. Thousands of people have attended anti-immigration protests and counter-demonstrations since.

12 August: Epping Forest District Council applies for an interim High Court injunction to remove asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel.

19 August: A High Court judge grants the temporary injunction, ordering asylum seekers at the site to be moved out by 12 September.

22 August: The government seeks the right to appeal against the High Court ruling.

26 August: The owner of the Bell Hotel is granted permission to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday: The council, hotel owners and the home secretary's team present their arguments in the Court of Appeal.

Today: A decision will be made on the appeal at 14:00 - we'll be keeping a close eye on developments and will bring you the latest.

Since 2020 councils and charities have been much more reliant on hotels to house asylum seekers.

The trend is driven by "the large backlog of asylum applications and a shortage of long-term housing options," according to Oxford University's Migration Observatory think tank.

Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the home secretary is "required to provide accommodation to all destitute asylum seekers while their asylum claims are being decided".

The Home Office says the use of hotels has been necessary to meet its legal obligations to those eligible for support.

There are different types of accommodation for asylum seekers depending on the stage of their immigration case, these are:

• Initial accommodation: Used to accommodate people while their application for long-term accommodation is decided, and in the interim while they wait to move to long-term lodgings
• Dispersal accommodation: Used once someone has been granted asylum, this is longer-term housing normally provided as private housing in local communities - this is offered on a "no-choice basis" across the UK

Image source, Getty Images

The legal battle, which we're expecting a ruling on today, boils down to whether or not asylum seekers can continue to be housed in the Bell Hotel.

Here's a summary of what each side is arguing:

The Home Office and the Bell Hotel

The government is challenging a High Court ruling temporarily blocking migrants from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.

Home Office lawyers say the case runs the risk of sparking further protests, "some of which may be disorderly, around other asylum accommodation".

The Bell Hotel's lawyers argue the injunction created a "risk of a precedent being set" and said the ruling was set to cause "the loss of accommodation for asylum seekers", impacting the Home Office's ability to perform its legal duties to them.

Epping Forest District Council

The Conservative-run council argued housing asylum seekers in the hotel was "a clear breach of planning permission. It is not in use as a hotel, and it doesn’t function as a hotel".

They told the court this case was different to others in recent years as the hotel had become a safety risk, citing the protests in recent weeks. "The current situation cannot go on," Leader of Epping Forest District Council Chris Whitbread said.

Philip Coppel KC, for the local authority, said there was "no compelling reason" for the appeal bid to be allowed.

Matt Spivey
Live editor

Lawyers from the Home Office and the Bell Hotel have been challenging a High Court ruling stopping asylum seekers from being housed at the hotel in Epping, Essex.

A judgement on their appeal is expected today at 14:00 BST.

The Bell Hotel has become the focal point of anti-immigration protests and counter-protests in recent weeks after a 38-year-old asylum seeker, Hadush Kebatu, was arrested and charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He denies all the offences.

Following legal action by Epping Forest District Council earlier this month, a court ordered all 138 asylum seekers living in the hotel must be removed by 12 September.

On Thursday the Court of Appeal heard from barristers who said the temporary injunction could spark further protests and risk "a precedent being set", as other councils consider similar injunctions.

We'll bring you the latest developments from both inside and outside the courtroom - stay with us.