CAMPAIGNERS welcomed the government’s announcement today that the Bibby Stockholm barge will be shut down, and called for other closures to follow.
The Home Office announced that the use of the vessel in Dorset, which houses around 400 asylum-seekers, will end when the contract finishes in January 2025.
Labour said that controversial accommodation will no longer be needed as it pushes forward with plans to clear the backlog of asylum claims and save £7.7 billion in the area over the next 10 years.
Extending the contract for another year would have cost over £20 million, according to the new government.
Refugees housed on Bibby Stockholm attended Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival in Dorset at the weekend, calling for Labour to scrap it.
Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said: “The Bibby Stockholm became the physical symbol for the last government’s inhumane treatment of people seeking sanctuary in the UK.
“The despair and suffering the barge has caused will live long in the people who were residents of it.
“Nor will not renewing the contract bring back Leonard Farruku, whose family have lost their loved one forever.”
Mr Farruku, an Albanian asylum-seeker, was found dead on the barge just months after it was opened in a suspected suicide.
“Whilst this is a sensible decision, at this very minute, we are in the High Court challenging the government over the inhumanity being inflicted on over 500 men inside the Wethersfield camp,” Mr Smith said.
“The current government is choosing to fight this case when the solution should have been to end the suffering and close this camp too.”
The decision came as Care4Calais launched a legal challenge against the use of the former RAF airbase in Wethersfield at the High Court today, with former residents as claimants.
Their lawyers will argue that the Home Office has failed its legal duty to provide suitable accommodation, implement a reasonable screening process and protect survivors of torture and modern slavery.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants also welcomed the barge’s closure, saying it should never have opened and that the government is “right to end this shameful practice.”
Migrant Voice UK added that there is no reason those on board should be kept there until January, saying: “We know that the Bibby Stockholm is entirely unsuitable and exacerbates mental and physical health issues of some of those held there.”
