The Bibby Stockholm barge will stop housing asylum seekers from the end of January 2025 as part of the government’s overhaul of the asylum system.
The barge, currently moored in Dorset, was set up by the last Conservative government as one of its attempts to cut hotel bills for people who had come to the UK via small boat crossings and were awaiting for their cases to be heard.
But the Home Office has now confirmed it will end the contract from next year “as part of the government’s commitment to clear the backlog and fix the asylum system”, saving more than £20m from renewing it.
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Axing the use of the barge – which could house up to 500 men – is part of an expected £7.7bn of savings in asylum costs over the next decade, the Home Office has claimed, as the new Labour government brings in its own policies.
Minister for border security and asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, said: “We are determined to restore order to the asylum system, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced.
“The home secretary has set out plans to start clearing the asylum backlog and making savings on accommodation which is running up vast bills for the taxpayer.
“The Bibby Stockholm will continue to be in use until the contract expires in January 2025.”
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Housing the Channel Migrants
The Conservative government started using the three-storey barge to house asylum seekers in August 2023, despite opposition from MPs, human rights charities and the local community.
It was subject to legal challenges and protests, and soon after the first group boarded the vessel there was an outbreak of Legionella bacteria found in the barge’s water system.
In December, an Albanian asylum seeker died on board.
But the party stood by the accommodation, with the then home secretary James Cleverly saying he was “totally confident” the Bibby Stockholm was meeting all legal requirements, adding: “We take both the physical and the mental health of the people who are in the asylum estate very seriously.”
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Labour has been a long-standing critic of the policy, and insisted it would put other measures in place to tackle the issue of the asylum backlog, along with illegal immigration.
The government has already scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda deportation scheme, saying instead it would divert resources to set up a new Border Security Command (BSC) to tackle the people smuggling gangs that engineer the Channel crossings.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also promised to tackle illegal migration “at source” with £84m to fund health and education projects abroad to stop the need for people to flee their homes in the first place.
At last week’s European Political Community (EPC) summit at Blenheim Palace, he confirmed a “deepening” of cooperation with European partners, including increasing the UK’s presence at Europol, agreeing new arrangements with Slovenia and Slovakia on tackling organised crime, and a commitment to share more intelligence “to put the gangs out of business”.
