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A barge leased by the UK to house asylum seekers received its first arrivals on Monday, weeks behind schedule and with controversy still swirling around the safety of the vessel and the number of people it will accommodate.
On Monday evening Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation at
the Home Office, told broadcasters that 15 people had been moved on
board. The Home Office said the tally would “increase gradually, with more arrivals later this week and in the coming months”, as it insisted the UK government’s approach mirrored that taken by some other European nations.
The government hopes that use of the 47-year-old Bibby Stockholm, moored at Portland in Dorset, together with former military bases will help reduce the £6mn a day it is spending on hotel bills for a record number of asylum seekers waiting for claims to be processed.
Alongside new laws barring anyone arriving in the UK without prior permission from claiming asylum, ministers hope the forbidding nature of the 93-metre-long vessel will help them meet a pledge to reduce the number of people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats.
However, the Home Office has struggled to get its policies off the ground. The Labour party on Monday pointed out that the latest Home Office data showed the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels had risen by more than 10,000 to 50,000 since December last year when UK prime minister Rishi Sunak pledged to halt using hotels for accommodation.
The 222-room Bibby Stockholm underwent repairs and retrofitting in Cornwall to increase its capacity to hold more than 500 men. But it lay empty for three weeks at Portland amid concerns over its safety.
Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said it had been working with the Bibby Stockholm’s operators to guarantee compliance with fire safety legislation, and would carry out an audit to ensure all its recommendations had been followed up.
“Should occupancy levels increase, then we would expect the risk assessment to be appropriately reviewed and actioned accordingly,” the service said.
The government’s plans have faced local opposition in Dorset, as well as legal challenges from non-government organisations. Refugee charity Care4Calais said it had successfully prevented some asylum seekers from being transferred to the barge on Monday.
Chief executive Steve Smith said that among the charity’s clients were “people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea”.
“To house any human being in a ‘quasi floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. To try and do so with this group of people is unbelievably cruel,” he said.
Meanwhile, government insiders poured cold water on the suggestion that migrants could be transferred to Ascension Island, part of a British Overseas Territory in the south Atlantic, about 1,000 miles from the coast of Africa.
One figure said that although there had been some discussion of the idea, first mooted in 2020 and rejected by former home secretary Priti Patel, the prospect of sending migrants to the volcanic outcrop was not being “actively progressed”.
Former cabinet secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told GB News the proposal had been considered when he was in government, but that it was ultimately dismissed after relocation costs were estimated at £1mn per person.
Asked if ministers were preparing a Plan B in the event that the government’s scheme to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda was struck down in the courts, Downing Street said: “We consider all options to stop the boats, but we are confident the Supreme Court will find in our favour and we can put the Rwanda migration partnership into effect.”
Polling published on Monday suggested Britons have less faith in the plan than ministers. YouGov said 9 per cent of people were confident the government would reduce the number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel on small boats, while just 12 per cent thought any asylum seekers would ever be sent to Rwanda.
Separately, the government is trying to clamp down on rogue immigration solicitors who provide coaching and services to people making false asylum claims.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority, the solicitors’ watchdog, last week suspended three legal firms accused of offering to submit fake asylum claims for migrants.
Ministers will on Tuesday launch a task force bringing together regulatory bodies, police and Whitehall departments to increase enforcement action and prosecutions against such firms.
Home secretary Suella Braverman, who will host a roundtable on the issue, said that while most solicitors were scrupulous, “crooked immigration lawyers must be rooted out and brought to justice”.
