‘Death Trap’: UK Starts Housing Illegal Migrants in Controversial Barge ‘Bibby Stockholm’, as It Surfaces Government Spends 7M per Day With Asylum Seekers in Hotels

In the run-up to the next General Election – due no later than January 2025, but possibly earlier – Conservative PM Rishi Sunak and his cabinet are scrambling to find ways to tackle with the ongoing catastrophe of mass illegal immigration.

Even after the UK regained the authority over its borders with BREXIT, it has not been able to tackle the constant influx of migrants coming from France, pouring over the English channel in small boats.

After considering sending the illegals awaiting processing of their asylum claims to Rwanda, in Africa, the Home Office is now considering using barges and military installations to house this people.

The reason: the UK government is currently spending £6m ($7,6m) per day housing more than 50,000 migrants in hotels.

So PM Sunak is under pressure to remove people from hotels during a soaring backlog of asylum cases to be processed by the Home Office.

So the government is starting to house people in the first such barge, the Bibby Stockholm, where they hope to house up to 500 people – less than 1 per cent of the over 50,000 asylum seekers currently being accommodated in hotels.

The ugly vessel, deemed ‘reasonably comfortable’ by reporters who visited it, was called a ‘death trap’ by the Fire authorities.

The barge is one of three sites set to house about 3,000 asylum seekers by the autumn. The other two are former Royal Air Force bases in Essex and Lincolnshire.

BBC reported:

“Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said the government had been ‘clear that those who arrive in the UK illegally should not be housed in expensive hotels’.

‘Our use of alternative accommodation sites and vessels provide basic and appropriate standards for small boats arrivals while their claims are determined’, he said.”

As you would expect, not everyone of the migrants selected to move was excited with the ‘death trap’ – so many did not go. Some of these are now being threatened with eviction and homelessness

Independent reported:

“But several other people who refused to board buses from their hotels to Portland Port on Monday received letters demanding they move on Tuesday or face the withdrawal of housing and other support.

[…] ‘Arrangements were made for you to travel from your accommodation to alternative accommodation at the Bibby Stockholm in Portland on 7th August 2023. On 7th August 2023 you did not take up the offer of this accommodation … if you do not travel tomorrow, on 8th August 2023, arrangements for ceasing the support that you are receiving from the Home Office may commence’.”

Justice secretary Alex Chalk, asked if forcing migrants was not illegal: it’s ‘not unreasonable’ to live on the ‘perfectly safe and decent’ barge.

“That is something the courts would have to consider but I think it would be unlikely that it would be illegal … I suspect it’s unlikely to be unlawful.”

Some of the people ordered to live on the Bibby Stockholm have been reprieved, after legal challenges by Charities claimed the vessel was ‘unsafe and unsuitable’ for traumatized people, and labeled it ‘costly, cruel and inhumane’.

The Guardian reported:

“The Home Office faces a new wave of legal action if it resists formal appeals to remove asylum seekers from consideration because of mental health issues, physical conditions and other vulnerabilities.

The refugee charity Care4Calais said it had stopped 20 people from being forced to board the barge so far, with dozens more referrals coming in ‘by the hour’ from other refugees staying in hotels.

‘None of the asylum seekers we are supporting have gone to the Bibby Stockholm today as legal representatives have had their transfers cancelled’, said Steve Smith, the charity’s chief executive.

‘Among our clients are people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea. To house any human being in a ‘quasi floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. To try to do so to this group of people is unbelievably cruel’.”

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