#asylum

#asylum

play our part

LONDON Opponents and supporters of migrants faced off in angry confrontations at demonstrations held around Britain over the holiday weekend as the government scrambled to deal with fallout from a court order that will force a hotel in a London suburb to evict asylum-seekers. The ruling has created a headache for the government, which has struggled to curb unauthorized migration and fulfill its responsibility to accommodate those seeking refuge.

The Bell hotel in Epping has seen a lot since it was built in the 16th century as a coaching inn, serving travellers passing through the historic Essex market town and on to London, 15 miles to the south-west. This has long been a place that bustled with outsiders, though they have not always been welcome the small green common opposite was once named after a beacon that local stories say was built to warn of invasion.

THE BELL HOTEL in Epping is a drab 80-bedroom coaching inn 20 miles as the crow files from Westminster. Since April it has housed up to 138 male asylum-seekers on behalf of the Home Office. Epping Forest District Council, which is controlled by the Conservative Party, contends that doing so constitutes a "material change of use" and the hotel's owner should seek planning permission to convert it to a hostel.

Some arrivals would be detained and returned to France in exchange for the UK accepting an equivalent number of asylum seekers, subject to security checks.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt defends the government’s tougher border controls, citing a need to limit immigration and the resulting increase in police work and overtime.

Germany is set to deport Syrians with criminal records, as the interior ministry confirms the intention to act against dangerous individuals and delinquents.

"We consider the temporary restoration of controls at the Polish-German border necessary to limit and reduce to a minimum the uncontrolled flows of migrants back and forth," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters.

DACA was not just a policy for me; it was a lifeline that allowed me to work legally and build a future, countering the fear of deportation.

Sir, you're welcoming White South Afrikaners into the country as refugees when you've closed off that door to a lot of other refugees from other parts of the world, the reporter said.