United Kingdom: First asylum seekers settle on controversial barge

Elodie Goulesque with AFP // Photo credits: Dan Kitwood / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP 20:15 p.m., August 07, 2023

A first group of asylum seekers settled on Monday, August 7, aboard the "Bibby Stockholm", a huge barge docked in the southwest of England, a very controversial project that has become symbolic of the fight against immigration undertaken by the British government. In difficulty in the polls one year before the next legislative elections, the head of the conservative government Rishi Sunak has made it a priority to "stop the boats" that cross the Channel illegally and has multiplied initiatives in recent days. One of them is to install asylum seekers on barges at the dock in order to save money in the reception of migrants while deterring potential asylum seekers.

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Outdated asylum system

A first group embarked Monday aboard the "Bibby Stockholm", barge 93 meters long by 27 wide, moored in the port of Portland. With its 222 cabins, it is supposed to accommodate up to 500 migrants. The first migrants were already due to arrive last week, but their installation had been postponed pending final inspections by firefighters to rule out the risk of fire. In Portland, the project has created controversy and anger among residents, some fearing for their safety while others denounce a "floating prison" at the foot of their island of some 13,000 inhabitants. The authorities refute this term and ensure that asylum seekers will be able to enter and leave as they please.

The port of Portland is the only one in the country to have agreed to moor such a barge. Other similar projects had to be abandoned due to lack of home ports. The NGO for the defense of migrants Care4Calais denounced again Monday a system "cruel" and "inhuman", ensuring that some of the asylum seekers it accompanies "have survived torture and modern slavery, and have gone through traumatic experiences at sea".

Since the 2016 Brexit referendum, which was supposed to "take control" of the borders, successive Conservative governments have continued to harden their anti-migrant rhetoric and promise, in vain for now, to put an end to illegal crossings in the Channel. Britain's asylum system is failing to cope with the claims: more than 130,000 asylum applications are still waiting to be assessed, most of them for more than six months, according to the latest government figures.

Reduce the bill

London is therefore seeking to reduce the bill for hotel accommodation for asylum seekers, which amounts to 2.3 billion pounds (2.6 billion euros) per year, by setting them up in disused military bases or even tents bought for the summer. In addition, a new law that came into force in July, denounced all the way to the UN, now prohibits migrants who have made the perilous crossing, more than 45,000 in 2022 and already nearly 15,000 in 2023, to apply for asylum in the United Kingdom. In particular, it provides for migrants to be deported to third countries such as Rwanda, a plan already launched last year, but since blocked by the courts.

Multiplying initiatives, the government announced this weekend a partnership with social networks to step up the fight against content inciting to cross the Channel, as well as a toughening of financial penalties for employers of irregular migrants. The latest idea, The Times newspaper reported on Sunday that the government was considering sending migrants to the volcanic island of Ascension in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, nearly 6,500 kilometers from the United Kingdom.