Hundreds of asylum seekers have been removed from a barge dubbed a ‘floating prison’ by charities.
Up to 400 men will be told if they can stay in the UK once they have been moved into hotels as part of a plan to save £7.7 billion in asylum costs.
The Bibby Stockholm barge would have cost an estimated £20million next year had Labour decided to extend the contract beyond its expiry in January.
In use for just over a year off the Dorset coast, the Bibby Stockholm has had a controversial run as accommodation for people seeking asylum in the UK.
The first residents were evacuated days after moving in when Legionella disease, potentially causing serious cases of pneumonia, was found in its water supply.
None of the those on the barge showed signs of having the disease, but charities saw it as vindication of their warnings that the barge’s use was ‘cruel and inhumane’.
The vessel was one of several sites, including RAF Wethersfield in Essex and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, used by the previous Conservative government to save money on housing asylum seekers in hotels.
Before the first asylum seekers were moved onto the Bibby Stockholm, the Care4Calais charity, said: ‘Human beings should be housed in communities, not barges.
‘The government could just get on with processing people’s asylum claims, instead they are playing to a gallery that seems to thrive on human suffering.’
Now the government appears to be doing that, with the Home Office saying it expects demand for accommodation to fall as it clears the asylum backlog.
As a result, both the Scampton and Wethersfield sites will also close.
Residents from the Bibby Stockholm will be relocated across England while they await a decision on their claims.
Locations include Cardiff, Wolverhampton and Bristol, BBC News reported. None will be moved to the Dorset Council area.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims processed.
‘We have taken immediate action to restart asylum processing which will save an estimated £7 billion for the taxpayer over the next 10 years, and are delivering a major uplift in returns to remove people with no right to be in the UK.
‘Over the long term this will reduce our reliance on hotels and costs of accommodation.
‘We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers.’
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