British government moves asylum-seekers to a barge moored off England’s coast
By Danica Kirka
London: A small group of asylum-seekers was moved onto a barge moored in southern England as the British government tries to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country.
Fifteen people were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, a floating hostel that will ultimately house up to 500 men, on Monday, London time, from other sites around the country, according to Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation for the Home Office.
People boarding the Bibby Stockholm immigration barge in Portland, England.Credit: Getty
More were expected to arrive later as authorities seek to reduce the number of asylum-seekers housed in expensive hotel rooms that were requisitioned on an emergency basis as the number of arrivals surged in recent years.
Avery said there had been some “minor legal challenges” to the transfers, but wouldn’t elaborate.
A charity for refugees, Care4Calais, said lawyers who intervened got transfers cancelled for about 20 asylum-seekers.
“Amongst our clients are people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea,” said Steve Smith, the group’s CEO. “To house any human being in a ‘quasi floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane.”
Approximately 50 arrivals are set to board the Bibby Stockholm, moored at Portland in Dorset.Credit: Getty
The barge, which is owned by UK-based Bibby Marine, is normally used to provide temporary housing for workers when local accommodation isn’t available. With three stories of closely packed bedrooms, the barge resembles a college dormitory, though the rooms are utilitarian. It also includes a kitchen, dining area, common rooms and laundry facilities.
Firefighters initially warned the vessel was a “potential deathtrap” but officials said it had completed all safety checks.
The Bibby Stockholm is moored in Portland Port on the Dorset Coast, where some locals have opposed the plan because of concern about the impact on the small surrounding community, which already has a shortage of medical services and is connected to the mainland by a single road.
Immigrant rights groups are also opposed, saying it is inappropriate to house asylum-seekers in such accommodation.
The British government wants to use barges and former military bases to accommodate some migrants after the cost of housing them in hotels soared to £1.9 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) last year and to deter others from attempting the dangerous English Channel crossing.
Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told the BBC that people arriving via unauthorised means should have “basic but proper accommodation” and that they “can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel”.
The government is also setting up a taskforce to act against the “small minority” of “crooked” lawyers who it says encourage illegal migrants to make false asylum claims in order to stay in the UK, the Home Office said on Tuesday in a statement. The taskforce came after the Solicitors Regulation Authority, an industry watchdog, closed down three legal firms named in a Daily Mail investigation into immigration services.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to “stop the boats” when he came to power in October, but so far this year, more than 15,000 asylum seekers have arrived on Britain’s shores – a rate that’s lower than last year but still exceeds all previous years.
A new YouGov survey released on Tuesday, however, said just 9 per cent of Britons were “confident” or “quite confident” that Sunak’s policies to cut arrivals would work, and 80 per cent lack confidence in the measures. Almost three quarters said they thought it was unlikely the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda would ever come to fruition, after the policy was declared unlawful in late June. The government is appealing that decision.
AP, Bloomberg
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