The transfer of about 50 asylum seekers onto an accommodation barge docked on Britain’s south coast was delayed at the last minute Tuesday, reportedly due to safety concerns. File photo by Jon Rowley/EPA-EFE
Aug. 1 (UPI) — British government plans to house asylum seekers on a barge moored on the south coast were postponed for a second time in a week Tuesday.
Transport Minister Richard Holden said his understanding was that the Bibby Stockholm, docked in Portland in Dorset, was undergoing “final checks” but refused to confirm reports that serious safety issues had been flagged up and that the barge had yet to receive a clean bill of health from the fire department.
A report by The Times said there were concerns about the 222-cabin barge becoming a “floating Grenfell,” referring to a 2017 apartment tower blaze in London in which 72 people were killed.
The first batch of asylum seekers — 50 single men — were scheduled to move in last week, but the transfer was delayed to Tuesday at the last minute because work on making it ready was incomplete.
Holden said he could not provide a clear timeline on when the transfer would go ahead.
“I can’t put a timeframe on it, Holden said adding that it was only right that any accommodation the government provided was “safe and secure.”
The Bibby Stockholm is one of three vessels the government has purchased to ease “unsustainable pressure on the U.K.’s asylum system” and slash the millions of dollars spent every day keeping asylum seekers in hotels, but the scheme has met with significant pushback.
The barges form part of an overall strategy encapsulated in the newly enacted Illegal Migration Bill which aims to stop the small boats that brought more than 45,000 asylum seekers to Britain’s shores in 2022 by not only making it illegal but dialing back the so-called “pull factor” of the welcome they receive.
Thousands of Portland residents who fear the impact of the arrival of 500 mostly single men on a town with a population of just 13,000 have taken part in protests on the quayside but human rights and anti-racism campaigners have also converged on Portland.
The Refugee Council, Asylum Matters and Refugee Action are among more than 40 organizations that say the barges plan is “cruel and inhumane”.
They argue it is “entirely inappropriate” to hold people in “detention-like” settings who are already traumatized by their experiences fleeing war and persecution.
A former RAF base in Essex, northeast of London, where 46 asylum seekers were transferred July 13 has also seen demonstrations by locals unhappy, among other concerns, at the drain on local services. The government plans to incrementally increase numbers at the site in Wethersfield to 1,700 by the fall, two-and-half-times the town’s 707 population.