A small group of asylum-seekers was moved Monday onto a barge moored in southern England as the UK 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, from other sites around the country, according to Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation for the Home Office.
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 has 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 canceled 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.”
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.
The Bibby Stockholm is moored in Portland Port on the south coast of England, 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. Immigrants rights groups are also opposed, saying it is inappropriate to house asylum-seekers in such accommodation.
The UK 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 ($2.4 billion) last year.
Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told the BBC that people arriving in the UK via unauthorized means should have “basic but proper accommodation” and that they “can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel.”
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11 Comments
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EFD
Regardless of legality, what moron thought this would be a good look?
sakurasuki
Anyone still interested to go to UK for asylums even after Brexit? Even Britons having difficulty in supporting themselves now.
Bad Haircut
They're not asylum seekers, they're illegal economic migrants. If they were genuine refugees they would seek asylum in the nearest safe country to their home. The UK is clearly not that.
As for those people standing with the signs in the photo, how many of them are hosting these migrants in their own homes? Not a single one, I bet. But they want taxpayers to fund accomodation for the illegal immigrants in nice hotels while the NHS crumbles and rising living costs put more and more UK citizens on the poverty line.
sakurasuki
UK version of Ellis Island, except it offers no hope.
JeffLee
So someone who has endured torture is going to be traumatized by staying in a brand-new purpose built hostel...because it floats!?! Gotta love the arguments of these NGOs. How about they pay the hotel bills for the seekers instead of the British taxpayer? Anyway, someone with that much trauma would be a huge burden to UK's health/mental-care system for many years or decades. How about the NGOs expend their energy on waging a war against torture in the countries where it takes place instead of blaming the people who are trying to accommodate them?
Yeah, they should choose Japan instead, where they'd be locked in a prison cell and given a .00001% chance of approval. Or they go to Canada, where even local full-time working people cannot afford or even find a one-room apartment or a doctor. The UK is VERY popular.
kurisupisu
These migrants are in the UK for mainly economic reasons.Housing cannot meet demand.
Being seen as a soft touch just exacerbates the problem.
If I had come to Japan illegally then I too would be in confinement…
2020hindsights
Oh, come on! Well, I guess it's better than Rwanda.
theResident
@EFD: I don't think anybody thinks its a good 'look' - but they keep coming. Illegally. Where on earth are the Uk supposed to house them any longer when its own citizens can't even get social housing when needed and end ups living in Bed and Breakfasts? The comparison to Ellis Island is one of the most poorly thought out comments I have read , and the poster clearly has no idea of the situation as is.
At least they are being roomed and fed.
TaiwanIsNotChina
That barge totally will not have an accident or end up being towed somewhere else...
Rodney
I would love to stay on a cruise ship or stay in a pretty hotel. Better than a mud house in a Barren land covered with goat poo. Free food, internet. Tv. Western toilets and showers.
Rodney
Should be the destination for the Ukrainian asylum seekers