This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
THE tragic human cost of the Bibby Stockholm barge was revealed by MPs today as the Tories’ overspend on asylum accommodation landed taxpayers with an extra £2.6 billion bill.
Dame Diana Johnson said asylum-seekers were facing “claustrophobic” conditions that could amount to a breach of human rights after the home affairs select committee visited the Portland vessel.
The committee chairwoman wrote to illegal migration minister Michael Tomlinson to set out serious concerns about the wellbeing of asylum-seekers on the barge.
She said it was “disheartened to see some of the living conditions on the Bibby Stockholm” after finding “many individuals having to share small, cramped cabins (originally designed for one person), often with people (up to six) they do not know (some of whom spoke a different language to them).”
“These crowded conditions were clearly contributing to a decline in mental health for some of the residents, and they could amount to violations of the human rights of asylum-seekers,” she added.
The committee complained of “discrepancies” between the accounts of officials and asylum-seekers themselves, noting MPs received “inconsistent” information regarding access to GP services for those on board.
The death of an asylum-seeker on board the Bibby Stockholm in December was “tragic,” MPs said, and they called on the Home Office to take “all suitable steps to ensure mental health support is available.”
Dame Diana told of the alarm of speaking to an asylum-seeker who said he had suicidal thoughts due to being on the barge, saying “we are extremely concerned about the apparent lack of mental health support for those on the barge.”
In a statement, she said: “We are concerned that housing asylum claimants on Bibby Stockholm is leaving them in a claustrophobic environment, isolated from external support including legal advice, and without important links to community, faith or family potentially for months on end.”
It came as the Tory government was accused of “completely busting the budget of the Home Office” after James Cleverly asked for parliamentary approval for an emergency £2.6bn in cash.
The Home Secretary requested a “contingencies fund advance” which the Home Office said will enable the department “to deliver services with unpredictable final costs, such as the asylum system.”
The department spent around £8 million a day last year for migrants to be put up in hotels, with official figures last summer showing more than 50,000 were housed in hotel rooms.
The request for extra money comes as figures this week showed the number of people crossing the English Channel was up 13 per cent compared with this time last year, something refugee charities say is driven by the closure of safe routes.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Tories have completely bust the budget of the Home Office through staggering incompetence and chaos, but the taxpayer is paying the price.
“The overspend this year is significantly worse than last year despite all Rishi Sunak’s promises.
“Their failure to clear the asylum backlog, end the use of hotels for asylum-seekers stuck in their broken asylum system or sort out proper contracts has left them with an eyewatering £2.6bn black hole that the British taxpayer will need to fill.”
Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said: “We can only hope that [the committee’s] influence, and leadership in raising these concerns, results in those in power finding a shred of decency, and they close down this floating prison-like barge.”
He said the £2.6bn funding request was “the financial cost of the government’s hostile environment against refugees.”
One Life To Live founder Nicola David said the “discrepancies” mentioned by Dame Diana between what the Home Office told the committee during their visit and what asylum-seekers told them “reflects almost every communication from the Home Office about the barge.”
She added: “Taxpayers are paying through the nose for unnecessary systems which simply bring additional suffering to asylum-seekers.”
Ann Salter of Freedom from Torture said: “It’s time for the government to listen, close the barge, and urgently refocus its efforts into rebuilding a fair, efficient, and compassionate system that protects people who have come to this country in the hope of finding safety.”
A Refugee Council spokesperson said: “We remain deeply concerned that the Home Office continues to cram people seeking safety into completely inappropriate and clearly harmful accommodation. Whether it’s a hotel or a barge, the government is spending vast sums of money and causing undue misery to people who have come to our country to find safety, the strong majority of whom will be recognised as refugees in need of protection.
“We must treat people seeking asylum with compassion and fairness, including by providing safe and dignified accommodation while they are in the UK asylum system. Instead of spending time and money on inhumane accommodation and unworkable policies, the government must focus on operating a fair and efficient asylum system that respects refugees’ human rights, processes claims quickly, and upholds the right to a fair hearing on UK soil. ”
Mr Cleverly insisted that he was “totally confident” the Bibby Stockholm met all legal requirements when grilled by the committee earlier this week.
