The UK government on Thursday called for a court-ordered ban on housing asylum seekers at a protest-hit hotel to be lifted, warning the move risked setting "a precedent".

At a Court of Appeals hearing, the interior ministry sought to overturn a High Court injunction issued earlier this month giving authorities until September 12 to remove the migrants.

The ruling dealt Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government a political and logistical blow, with some 32,345 asylum seekers already housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of March.

Flashpoint protests broke out at the Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast London, in July after an asylum seeker staying there was accused of sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.

Ethiopian Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has denied charges including sexual as

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