Britain’s justice minister on Friday said he was “appalled” after an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender whose crimes sparked protests was released from jail in error.
The high-profile case earlier this year ignited demonstrations which swiftly spread to other towns where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was jailed last month for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman.
Justice Minister David Lammy expressed outrage at the accidental release earlier Friday, adding that Kebatu “must be deported for his crimes”.
“We are urgently working with the police to track him down and I’ve ordered an urgent investigation,” he said on X.
At the time of the offence, Kebatu had been housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, northeast of London, where around 130 other asylum seekers have been accommodated and which became the target of repeated protests following his arrest.
After his conviction, the interior ministry said it would not comment on individual cases but that it was “longstanding policy” to seek to deport “foreign nationals who commit serious crimes in our country”.
A prison service spokesperson said staff were “urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error”.
“The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker has been accidentally freed rather than deported. He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken,” said Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
Reform has soared in popularity in recent opinion polls amid public concern about high levels of undocumented migration in particular.
Kebatu was convicted of five offences, including two of sexual assault, and handed a one-year sentence.
Police had arrested him on July 8 after he repeatedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and touch her legs, and made sexually explicit comments to her.
He also sexually assaulted an adult woman, placing a hand on her thigh, when she intervened to stop his interactions with the girl.
