Bibby Stockholm: Barge set to deal with asylum seekers on its solution to Dorset

A barge which is able to home 500 asylum seekers is on the transfer, with the primary residents anticipated to board later this month.

The barge – named the Bibby Stockholm – departed from Falmouth, Cornwall, to go to Portland Port in Dorset on Monday morning as Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman confronted recent criticism over the Illegal Migration Bill.

The invoice, which is a part of a bundle of measures to discourage migrants from crossing the channel, has confronted fierce opposition within the House of Lords quite a few instances.

Members need additional concessions within the invoice on limits to the detention of youngsters, fashionable slavery protections and the supply of protected and authorized routes for refugees to the UK.

Meanwhile, outdoors the Home Office, comic Dom Joly led a Save the Children protest whereas dressed as Mickey Mouse and holding a placard that learn “stop child detention”.

It got here after ministers confronted criticism over a choice to paint over “welcoming” murals of Disney characters, together with Mickey Mouse and Baloo from The Jungle Book, at a migrant reception centre in Kent.

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Despite criticism, Rishi Sunak defended the usage of barges as a “better” solution to home migrants, in a message to the folks of Portland who’re in opposition to it being moored there.

Read extra:
Barge arrives in UK waters
How it acquired right here

“I think it’s right for the public as a whole that we move away from a situation where £6m a day of taxpayers’ money is going towards housing these individuals in hotels,” the prime minister mentioned.

“We think it is better to open specific sites designed to house immigrants that come in, done in a more planned way.”

Dorset Council has been given £2m in a funding bundle to satisfy the price of offering companies to residents.

The transfer of the three-storey vessel is already a month not on time, after Ms Braverman informed MPs that the vessel can be in Portland inside a fortnight on 5 June.

The 222-bedroom vessel comprises “basic” lodging, with healthcare provision, catering amenities and 24/7 safety, at a reported price of £20,000 a day, the Home Office mentioned again in May.

In addition to the Bibby Stockholm, the federal government is in search of to make use of former navy bases to deal with asylum seekers.

Braintree District Council and a close-by resident are bringing authorized motion to problem the use of Wethersfield in Essex to deal with as much as 1,700 males, whereas West Lindsey District Council is difficult related plans for RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.