Mega barge that will host 500 asylum seekers arrives as migrant plan becomes law

18 July 2023 , 07:27

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The tug boat Mercia pulled the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge into Portland in Dorset (Image: PA)

A giant migrant barge arrived today at the port where it will house 500 asylum seekers.

The Bibby Stockholm was pulled by a tug into Dorset's Portland Port this morning - less than eight hours after Parliament backed the Government's "morally repugnant" migration plans. The Illegal Migration Bill is poised to become law after ministers saw off fresh challenges by peers.

Demonstrators gathered in Portland as the barge docked. Rev Canon Nick Clark, rural dean of Weymouth and Portland, told the BBC: "I am here to join with others here on the protest about the barge and to make a stand to welcome the refugees to this community. We can do so much better in terms of making refugees more welcome than just pitting them on a barge it just looks like an incarceration. They are in need."

Shadow Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips gave an emotional speech later this afternoon saying she cries when she thinks about victims of trafficking being kept on the barge.

The Labour MP, who was speaking at a Centre for Social Justice event, said: “I remember spending the time late at night sewing the curtains for what would become the Midlands first dedicated Women's Refuge for victims of trafficking. I remember the care we put into that service.

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“I think now of victims of modern slavery boarding an overcrowded barge in Portland in Dorset and I cry at the difference in standards to what we once aspired to, and now what awaits people who have been beaten, imprisoned, terrified and sexually exploited. Who is sewing the curtains now?”

She added: "Believe me when I say that the illegal migration bill is a traffickers dream, a tool for their control."

Mega barge that will host 500 asylum seekers arrives as migrant plan becomes law

The 305ft vessel arrived in Portland today (Getty Images)

The 305ft vessel was brought into Cornish waters in May for checks and refurbishment. The 1970s-built, 10,659-ton mega-barge with 222 cabins had been due in Portland a month ago, despite resistance from the local council and Tory MP Richard Drax.

But work on the barge had been delayed and it was only yesterday that tugs began towing the vessel out of Falmouth harbour. The barge's arrival at Portland came after a night of drama in which the Tory frontbench saw off five further changes being sought by the unelected Lords, including to modern slavery protections and child detention limits. At least one other vote was ditched in the face of the Government victories.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who has been a strident critic of the Bill, also dropped his demand for a statement on tackling the refugee problem and human trafficking to the UK, after a similar proposal was rejected by MPs. It marked a shock ending to the parliamentary tussle over the flagship reforms that had threatened to go to the wire ahead of the summer recess.

The end of the stand-off during so-called ping-pong - where legislation is batted between the Lords and Commons until agreement is reached - paves the way for the Bill to receive Royal Assent later this week. The reforms are a key part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's bid to deter people from making perilous Channel crossings.

They will prevent people from claiming asylum in the UK if they arrive through unauthorised means. The Government also hopes the changes will ensure detained people are promptly removed, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda, which is currently the subject of a legal challenge.

Home Office minister Lord Murray of Blidworth said the number of small boat arrivals had "overwhelmed" the UK's asylum system and was costing taxpayers £6million a day to provide accommodation.

But Naomi Smith, chief executive of campaign group Best for Britain, said: “This cruel bill will now give the Government the green light to flout international law and mistreat refugees to distract from their own failure to fix the problems they created when ministers closed safe routes to asylum.

“This policy is not only morally repugnant, it is totally unworkable; with no agreement with a safe third country it simply creates the need for the Government to detain a growing pool of people at great cost to the taxpayer rather than allowing them to rebuild their lives here.”