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Britain’s immigration system is under fire after officials confirmed an Ethiopian asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and another woman was accidentally released from prison Friday, sparking a manhunt for the fugitive sex offender.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was sentenced in September to 12 months behind bars, Reuters reported.
An “appalled” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer slammed the release of Kebatu, calling it “totally unacceptable,” according to The Associated Press.
His arrest in July ignited weeks of protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, a migrant housing site about 20 miles north of London, according to the report.
At its peak in 2023, the Home Secretary said more than 400 hotels were being used to house asylum seekers, costing nearly £9 million GBP per day, or roughly $11.3 million.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was convicted of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and one count of harassment without violence. (Essex Police)
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“We share the view of communities nationwide that these hotels must close — including the Bell Hotel in Epping,” UK Foreign Secretary and Labour MP Yvette Cooper wrote in a previous statement. “We are moving to do so as quickly as possible through a structured and sustainable plan, rather than through one-off court rulings that create more problems for other local areas or councils.
“Such piecemeal decisions risk repeating the chaos that led to the large-scale use of hotels in the first place.”
Officials said Kebatu was supposed to be transferred to an immigration detention center for deportation, but was mistakenly freed, according to the report.
People protest outside Epping Forest District Council, after the British government won a court ruling resulting in asylum seekers not being evicted from The Bell Hotel in Epping, Britain. (Reuters/Jack Taylor)
Britain’s Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy wrote in an X post he was “appalled at the release in error at HMP Chelmsford.”
“We are urgently working with the police to track him down, and I’ve ordered an urgent investigation,” Lammy wrote. “Kebatu must be deported for his crimes, not on our streets.”
Kemi Badenoch, conservative member of Parliament for North West Essex, also made a fiery post, saying the “entire system is collapsing under Labour.”
“The fake asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a child in Epping has been ‘released in error,’” Badenoch wrote. “How does that happen? Because the entire system is collapsing under Labour. Govt mistakenly letting people out instead of deporting. Those they deported are coming back. Nothing of substance has been done to address the threat to women and girls living in these communities.”
Protesters react next to police during a protest near Epping Forest District Council, after the British government won a court ruling resulting in asylum seekers not being evicted from The Bell Hotel in Epping, Britain, in August. (Reuters/Jack Taylor)
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Badenoch said conservatives voted against Labour’s prisoner release program because it was “putting predators back on our streets,” but pointing out Kebatu was just convicted.
“A level of incompetence that beggars belief,” she wrote. “Only Conservatives have a plan for stronger borders and public order.”
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Nigel Farage, member of Parliament for Clacton and Leader of Reform UK, added on X: “The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker has been accidentally freed rather than deported. He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”