A barge meant to take in asylum seekers docked in Portland on a peninsula in Dorset in the south of the UK on Tuesday 18 July, sparking criticism from local residents and outraged human rights defenders. Bibby Stockholm is a 300-foot, 222-cabin, three-level boat, according to its operator, Bibby Marine, on which UK authorities plan to accommodate around 500 single adult males.
The ship is due to remain in port for at least eighteen months, according to the UK Home Office, which said in a statement on April 5 that the ship would provide “simple and functional” accommodation including care and recovery services. He assured that this initiative “will serve to alleviate the unsustainable pressure on the UK asylum system and to reduce the cost to the taxpayer of the significant increase in Channel crossings”, noting that the accommodation of Asylum seekers staying in hotels is now costing the public finances £6million a day ($6.9million).
“The Home Secretary and I have made it clear that the use of expensive hotels to accommodate people making unnecessary and dangerous journeys must stop,” said Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Immigration, as quoted in the press release, adding: “It will we don’t.” Prioritize the interests of illegal immigrants [ceux du] British people. The Ministry of the Interior states that negotiations are being held with other ports so that they can accommodate barges of the same type.
“We don’t know anything about their profiles”
Locally, opposition to Bibby Stockholm appears to be split between defenders of the rights of asylum seekers and those whose primary concern is public peace, according to a report by local media, the Dorset Echo. On Tuesday, the Stand Up to Racism in Dorset and No to the Barge collectives in Portland were insulted before a police intervention lowered tensions. ” She [Stand Up to Racism] I think we’re racist, but that’s not the point,” a No to the Barge member told the Dorset Echo. “It’s about having 500 men on such a small island when we don’t know their profiles and we don’t have enough doctors and nurses. »
Exchange between two groups of protesters against the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, UK on July 18. BEN BIRCHALL/AP
The barge has come under criticism as Britain’s Parliament passed a controversial immigration bill on Monday night, banning migrants who have arrived illegally in the UK from seeking asylum there. The government also wants migrants to be swiftly deported to their country of origin or to a third country like Rwanda, wherever they come from, once they have been detained.
The UN denounced this law in a press release on Tuesday. The new legislation “seriously undermines the legal framework that has protected so many people and puts refugees at great risk in violation of international law,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, while Volker Turk, the high commissioner for human rights, called called on the UK government to “renew its commitment to human rights by repealing this law”.