A UK town applied for a High Court injunction on Tuesday to stop asylum seekers being housed in a local hotel, following protests, some of which turned violent.
The council in Epping, northeast of London, applied for an interim injunction against the housing of of asylum seekers and refugees at the Bell Hotel, citing "the clear risk of further escalating community tensions".
"The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub we could have closed it down long ago," Epping Forest district council leader Chris Whitbread, from the Conservative party, said in a statement.
Protests broke out in the town in July after an asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, which he denies.
Since then hundreds of people have taken part in protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel. Further anti-immigration demonstrations also spread to London and around England.
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