Britain’s immigration system is facing criticism following the inadvertent release of an Ethiopian asylum seeker from prison, who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and another woman. The oversight has led to a manhunt for the fugitive sex offender.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, aged 38, received a 12-month prison sentence in September, as reported by Reuters.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed his outrage over Kebatu’s release, labeling the incident as “totally unacceptable,” according to The Associated Press.

Kebatu’s arrest in July sparked weeks of protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, a migrant accommodation facility located approximately 20 miles north of London, the report noted.

In 2023, at the height of the immigration housing issue, the home secretary revealed that over 400 hotels were being utilized to accommodate asylum seekers, incurring costs of nearly £9 million per day, equivalent to roughly $11.3 million USD.

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)

“We share the view of communities nationwide that these hotels must close — including the Bell Hotel in Epping,” U.K. 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, a 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)

Badenoch said conservatives voted against Labour’s prisoner release program because it was “putting predators back on our streets,” but she pointed 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.”

Nigel Farage, a member of Parliament for Clacton and the 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.”