pressure on Labour as protests increase

  • Post last modified:July 16, 2024
  • Reading time:10 mins read


Asylum seekers have held a sit-in demonstration outside the floating asylum accommodation the Bibby Stockholm. They were protesting their quasi-detention limbo on the barge as the new Labour Party-run Home Office puts them through huge waits for their claims to be processed.

Bibby Stockholm sit-in and solidarity protests

As the Guardian reported:

Dozens of asylum seekers living on the Bibby Stockholm barge are staging a sit-down protest over delays in processing their asylum claims, overcrowding conditions and trouble accessing medical treatment.

A man this week described the boat in Dorset as the “hell barge”. There are about 400 asylum seekers onboard, one of the highest rates of occupancy since it opened in 2022.

From the start, the Tories de facto floating prison has been riddled with controversy. Days after the Home Office had forced 39 migrants aboard the vessel in August 2023, tests detected the bacteria legionella within its water system. This bacteria can cause a potentially deadly respiratory condition known as Legionnaires’ disease.

As a result, the government had to evacuate the refugees from the barge. In September, freedom of information requests (FOIs) revealed that tests had identified the most deadly strain of legionella on the vessel.

Meanwhile, others have highlighted the huge sums of taxpayer’s money the government has thrown at the abhorrent floating cage. A migrant solidarity group had estimated the cost of the barge at £560k for just four weeks. However, information obtained by investigative group Corporate Watch revealed the Bibby Stockholm’s bill to be much higher in total. It found that the weekly cost amounted to nearly £300k. This means that the government squandered £2.2m to private contractors while the barge remained vacant due to legionella.

Campaigners have also underscored the appalling conditions and treatment on board. For instance, refugees on the barge have described the poor food quality and restricted access to it. Notably, for nearly half the day, they are entirely unable to access food from the on-site canteen.

The traumatic experience of living on the isolated Bibby Stockholm has led to suicide attempts, with one Albanian man, Leonard Farruku, dying by apparent suicide in December 2023.

Legal action has been a feature of the barge’s controversial history from the word go too. First, in August 2023 the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) launched a challenge against the Home Office over fire safety concerns.

Then, local councillor and Portland Mayor Carralyn Parkes embarked on a legal battle over the Bibby Stockholm. In October 2023, the courts quashed her initial judicial review against the Home Office. However, Parkes pursued her legal action, this time against Dorset Council. In May 2024, the courts once again dismissed the case. In both instances, the High Court had ruled that neither the Home Office or Dorset Council had planning authority over the barge.

Bibby “hell barge”

Many on the barge have waited long delays in the Home Office processing their asylum claims. Some on board haven’t received a decision after three years. In fact, an iNews report from December 2023 revealed that the Home Office won’t even approve claims while asylum-seekers are housed on the Bibby Stockholm.

So now, asylum-seekers have launched a first-of-its-kind protest. Carrying placards that read “life not limbo” and others calling for “freedom” from the Bibby Stockholm, they sat together in the outside courtyard:

Meanwhile, local residents and campaigners from Stand Up to Racism Dorset stood in solidarity with them at the port:

A number of refugee rights groups backed their calls for the new Labour government to shut down the Tories racist legacy:

As refugee and asylum specialist Lou Calvey noted, the right-wing vanity project was always a deliberate decision by a the rancidly racist Tory government. Instead, Labour could now choose to house asylum-seekers in communities, where local people and services can support and welcome them:

Labour prioritises right-wing pandering and publicity stunts over people

Indeed, the 18-month contract for the barge is set to expire soon. So, it would present the perfect opportunity for Labour to ditch it.

Despicably however, in the in the final weeks of the election campaign, then shadow and now Home secretary Yvette Cooper said Labour would initially keep the barge. Cooper told LBC that the party would seek to end its use “as fast as possible”, but argued that:

what you have to do first of all, the system is broken, so we need to prevent small boats arriving in the first place and that means smashing the criminal gangs.

Already, Cooper has launched Labour’s game of migrant scapegoating from the outset. First on the agenda, Labour waving its dick around with its rightwing pander-project-come-border security plans. As the World Socialist Web Site reported:

Within 48 hours of Labour coming to power, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the creation of a Gestapo-like Border Security Command (BSC).

However, the Canary has pointed out before how these plans will do little to actually end dangerous boat crossings. To prevent people making the perilous crossing, Labour needs to expand safe routes to asylum.

Ostensibly, its “stop the boats” chest-beating is not – and never was – about saving lives. If it were, the new Labour government would put a stop to the enormous abhorrent racist prison boat in its own backyard once and for all.

This Thursday – 18 July – will mark one year since the barge arrived in Portland. Labour should end Dorset’s – and the country’s – ship of “shame” for good. 

Feature image via Tom Lawrence – X





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