Asylum seeker's message as Farage fuels fury over Tory-made migrant hotel crisis

A resident of the asylum hotel at the centre of angry anti-migrant protests has pleaded for the demonstrations to end after the Home Office was ordered to curb their stay.

Khadar Mohamed, 24, revealed those ensconced inside theBell Hotel in Eppingwere 'living in pain and fear' each time locals held protests outside the hotel and that many now were more uncertain about their futures. Mr Mohamed, who said he had won his claim for political asylum against the Home Office, added: "I want everybody to know that there are no paedophiles and rapists living inside this hotel.

"We don't sympathise with that behaviour and if we had had the chance we would have stopped it. It is only one claim against an individual, not against everybody inside the hotel.

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"So now we've got 50 to 60 days to leave and none of us know what it's going to happen. But there is no need for these people to be shouting at us from outside.

"I speak very good English but I've never heard the word "scumbag" until these people came along. It is very painful to be called these names and when people pass you in their cars and you walk along the streets they make noises at you and bad faces.

"When I walk past them the ladies hold their purses tighter. But I'm not a thief and I'm not a threat to anyone."

Mr Mohamed fled his village of Elbur in Somalia in 2022 after terrorists took command and ordered him to join their ranks. He said his sister Farxiya was killed by members of Al-Shabaab after she was forced into marriage with a member at the age of 21, but refused to comply with their ideology.

He said he was pulled into their ranks and ordered to teach the Quran to school children even though he did not agree with their violent struggle and was attacked with a knife which left a scar on his right arm. He added: "They also cut off a fingernail to show me that they could control me."

After refusing to 'be weaponised' and join the terrorists in actions against Somalian authorities, he was held in a jail for two years before a friendly associate of the government paid for his release and managed to obtain a Turkish Visa for him. He travelled to Turkey and onto, Greece and Austria where he worked washing dishes and finally got to the UK three months ago.

He travelled on a boat which left Dunkirk at 3 am on May 11 carrying 70 migrants and paid people smugglers £800 for their help. He added: "I'm happy that my application for asylum has been accepted. But I don't know what is going to happen next to me or all the people inside there.

"I have to get a job and find somewhere to live, but everybody is uncertain about what happens next to them. The people who don't want us here have achieved the result they were looking for, now let us hope that there are no more protests or anger against us. Life is already very difficult."

Epping Forest District Council argued that the hotel had become a public safety risk because of its alleged planning law breach by ceasing to be a true hotel. Dan Jarvis, Minister of State for Security, told the BBC the government had "never thought that hotels were an appropriate source of accommodation for asylum seekers."

He said the government was "looking at options" to rehouse them in "suitably appropriate alternative accommodation." The case brought by Epping Forest was that the alleged planning breach had led to evidenced harms. Critically, these harms related to protests which had led to violence and arrests.

Tory-run Broxbourne Council was the first local authority to declare it was seeking legal advice after the ruling "as a matter of urgency about whether it could take a similar action" over a hotel. Epping Forest District Council has said it had set a precedent and the local councils were now standing up against the influx of asylum seekers into hotels.

Government ministers say they are braced for other councils to follow Epping's lead. The ruling causes immediate practical difficulties for the Home Office, which has to find alternative accommodation for the asylum seekers currently housed at the Bell Hotel.

It is believed that around 32,000 asylum seekers are living in 210 hotels across the UK who also now face uncertainty over whether other councils will pursue similar action to Epping Forest District Council.