Bibby Stockholm migrant barge will CLOSE DOWN under asylum system overhaul
MINISTERS will ditch the Bibby Stockholm barge for housing migrants off the south coast as part of an overhaul to the asylum system.
A contract for the vessel moored in Dorset will end with the need for accommodation reduced as the asylum backlog clears, the government says.
Military RAF bases and the Bibby Stockholm were used by the previous Tory government to cut the eye-watering cost of putting migrants up in hotels.
The cost of carrying on using the vessel would cost more than £20 million next year, the government says. The contract will not be renewed in January when it is due to expire.
Savings in the asylum system as a result of changes by Labour will amount to £7.7 billion over the next decade.
Home Office Minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “We are determined to restore order to the asylum system, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced.
“The Home Secretary has set out plans to start clearing the asylum backlog and making savings on accommodation which is running up vast bills for the taxpayer.
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“The Bibby Stockholm will continue to be in use until the contract expires in January 2025.”
Five hundred people can be housed on the barge but it has been hit by several setbacks since it was commission in April last year.
There was a discovery of dangerous bacteria just days after the first arrival and it then remained empty for eight weeks.
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An Albanian asylum seeker, who died while living on board the barge at the end of last year, is understood to have taken his own life.
Steve Smith, boss of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: “The Bibby Stockholm became the physical symbol for the last Government’s inhumane treatment of people seeking sanctuary in the UK.
“The despair and suffering the barge has caused will live long in the people who were residents of it. Nor will not renewing the contract bring back Leonard Farruku, whose family have lost their loved one forever.
Bibby Stockholm to close in January next year
The Bibby Stockholm is a barge that is currently being used as an accommodation vessel.
The Bibby, which has no engine, was built as a ship in the mid-1970s before being used for accommodation in 1992.
It has moved around Europe being used in the mid-1990s as a homeless hub in Hamburg, Germany, and also for construction workers in 2013 at the Shetland Gas plant.
But in 2023, Ministers in the UK unveiled their plans to use the barge as a venue for housing asylum seekers.
It is currently housed in Portland port, off the south coast in Devon.
Those on the barge will have access to English lessons and recreational activities.
There are around 200 rooms across three storeys which can hold around 500 men from 18 up until they reach 65.
Concerns led by the Fire Brigades Union were raised last summer over exit routes and potential overcrowding.
Ministers say they will no longer need the Bibby as when the asylum backlog is cleared then migrants will be housed elsewhere.
“Whilst this is a sensible decision, at this very minute, we are in the High Court challenging the Government over the inhumanity being inflicted on over 500 men inside the Wethersfield camp.
“The current Government is choosing to fight this case when the solution should have been to end the suffering and close this camp too.”