Manhunt after asylum seeker mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford

British police launched a major manhunt after Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, who was jailed in September for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford instead of being transferred to an immigration removal centre for deportation. Kebatu, who was sentenced to 12 months and was subject to a deportation order under the UK Borders Act after arriving in the UK on a small boat and living at the Bell Hotel, was filmed in a prison tracksuit walking through Chelmsford minutes after his release and boarding a Greater Anglia train to London. Authorities say the release resulted from a paperwork/misclassification error and that a prison officer has been removed from duty after apparently being mistakenly handed a discharge grant. The Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and Essex Police are leading a joint search while officials work to locate, detain and return him to custody for deportation. Justice Secretary David Lammy and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have called the blunder “totally unacceptable” and ordered urgent investigations, and the case has reignited political debate over migration policy and the use of hotels to house asylum seekers with calls for a public inquiry.