Officials win court case to remove asylum-seekers from a UK hotel that's been the focus of protests

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LONDON (AP) — A hotel near London that has become the focus of heated anti-migrant protests in recent weeks will have to remove asylum-seekers who are staying there after authorities won a legal bid Tuesday to oust the migrants.

Officials from the Epping Forest District Council asked a judge to issue an order to temporarily block migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, due to “unprecedented levels of protest and disruption” over asylum-seeker accommodation.

Thousands of people, some chanting “save our kids” and “send them home," have protested near the hotel after an asylum-seeker living there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has denied charges against him and is due to stand trial later this month.

The protests, which included local people as well as some members of organized far-right groups, started out peaceful but turned violent. At least nine people were arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Anti-racism demonstrators have also staged counterprotests outside the Bell Hotel and other sites.

Philip Coppel, a lawyer for local officials in Epping, said the hotel's housing of asylum-seekers had provided a “feeding ground for unrest" and community tension.

A High Court judge ruled Tuesday that the hotel must stop housing asylum-seekers by Sept. 12. It wasn’t immediately clear where the migrants would be moved to.

Last summer, days of anti-immigrant rioting rocked towns and cities across England and Northern Ireland, triggered by the killing of three young girls at a summer dance class in Southport, northwest England. Crowds in more than two dozen towns attacked hotels housing migrants, as well as mosques, police stations and a library, driven partly by online misinformation claiming the attacker was a migrant who had arrived in the U.K. by small boat. Some rioters targeted nonwhite people and threw bricks and fireworks at police.

Tensions have long simmered over the government's policy of using hundreds of hotels across the country to house migrants who are awaiting a decision on their asylum status. Critics say it costs taxpayers millions of pounds, the hotels become flashpoints in communities, and leave migrants feeling targeted by local residents.