First asylum seekers arrive on Bibby Stockholm barge

The first group of asylum seekers have boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge with extra arrivals anticipated as we speak, Sky News understands.

Around 50 individuals have been anticipated to maneuver on to the vessel, docked in Portland Port in Dorset, on Monday after weeks of delays to the controversial plan.

The Bibby Stockholm is certainly one of quite a few different websites the Home Office is utilizing to finish reliance on costly inns for asylum seekers, which the federal government says is costing £6m a day.

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But there was appreciable native opposition attributable to considerations concerning the asylum seekers’ welfare and the influence on native companies.

Protesters gathered at Portland Harbour on Monday with welcome packs containing toiletries and make contact with particulars of organisations providing assist to migrants.

Care4Calais claimed it had stopped round 20 asylum seekers from varied places from boarding the barge, together with individuals who have disabilities, individuals who have had traumatic experiences crossing the ocean and victims of torture and fashionable slavery.

The charity stated it would proceed working with asylum seekers who do not need to be moved into the lodging.

The 222-bedroom barge will in the end maintain 500 single males with numbers anticipated to extend progressively over time.

There have been delays to transferring individuals on to the location after security considerations have been raised, with the Fire Brigade Union branding it a “potential death trap” and warning concerning the danger of overcrowding.

Downing Street advised Home Office minister Sarah Dines misspoke when she stated earlier on Monday that the lodging might attain full capability by the tip of the week.

Asked concerning the remark, the prime minister’s official spokesman stated: “We are looking to (reach) that number over time – I don’t think we are aiming to do it by the weekend.”

Ms Dines advised Sky News the barge “sends a forceful message” that individuals who cross the Channel might be housed in lodging that’s “proper…but not luxury” – claiming inns are a part of the “pull” issue attracting individuals to the UK.

Hotels now housing 50,000 asylum seekers

The arrival of individuals on the barge coincided with a launch of knowledge by the federal government displaying the variety of asylum seekers residing in inns – paid for by the taxpayer – had risen from round 40,000 on the finish of 2022 to greater than 50,000.

In whole, 50,546 individuals have been being housed in inns as of 30 June.

This comes after Rishi Sunak promised to “stop the boats” in January. In December final 12 months he claimed within the House of Commons that his authorities had “already identified locations that could accommodate 10,000 people” – and was planning to search out extra

A complete of 339 individuals crossed the Channel on Friday and Saturday, with none making the journey on Sunday throughout dangerous climate.

Total arrivals thus far for 2023 stand at 15,071, which is 15% down on final 12 months, the newest figures counsel.

However, that’s considerably greater than the ten,703 arrivals that had been detected at this level in 2021.

Shadow dwelling secretary Yvette Cooper stated: “Rishi Sunak is failing to fix the Tories boats chaos and the Conservatives are just flailing around chasing headlines rather than getting a grip.”

Barge ‘paying homage to jail hulks from the Victorian period’

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Director, stated: “It seems there’s nothing this government won’t do to make people seeking asylum feel unwelcome and unsafe in this country.

“Reminiscent of the jail hulks from the Victorian period, the Bibby Stockholm is an totally shameful strategy to home individuals who’ve fled terror, battle and persecution.”

He added that “moderately than wrecking the asylum system”, the government “ought to pretty and effectively decide individuals’s claims as an alternative of perpetuating expensive backlogs, human distress and organised felony exploitation”.

Alongside the barge, the federal government needs to deal with individuals in navy websites and marquees.

Multiple studies have additionally advised the federal government is re-visiting plans for a processing centre in Ascension Island within the South Atlantic Ocean, if the long-touted Rwanda deportation scheme doesn’t get off the bottom.

Watch Housing the Channel Migrants particular programme on Sky News at 7pm tonight

Ms Dines wouldn’t verify or deny the plan however stated the federal government was “looking at all options”.

She stated “times change” and that the small boats disaster had turn into “urgent” when requested why the plan was reportedly being reconsidered after seemingly being rejected by Boris Johnson’s former authorities.

Downing Street additionally refused to be drawn on the “speculation” and stated it’s assured its plan to deport individuals to the east African nation might be profitable within the courts.

This week is the federal government’s unofficial “small boats week”, the place it needs to speak about its efforts to get a grip on the variety of individuals crossing the English Channel on a small boat.

Read More:
Who might be residing on the Bibby Stockholm – and what’s it like on board?
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Ms Cooper stated: “The prime minister admitted last December that hotel use was a serious problem and promised to end it, but instead since then it has gone up by a truly shocking 25% with more asylum hotels still opening, and the taxpayer having to pay billions more pounds as a result.

“This is the direct consequence of Tory mismanagement and their disastrous failure to hurry up asylum selections or clear the backlog which remains to be at a file excessive.

“Under the Tories, the chaos in the asylum system is getting worse and worse and costs are spiralling out of control.

“Labour has a plan to get a grip of the asylum system, together with clearing the backlog and quick monitor selections and returns for protected international locations, to finish the costly use of inns to deal with asylum seekers.”