THE rusting hulk of the Bibby Stockholm is an ageing engineless barge which during its 47-year existence has been used both as secure accommodation for asylum-seekers in the Netherlands, and more recently to provide accommodation for construction workers at the Shetland Gas Plant in Scotland.

 On Tuesday May 9 it was hauled into Falmouth docks in Cornwall to undergo a refit in preparation for its next incarnation as an accommodation/detention centre for refugees and asylum-seekers whom the Home Office deemed to be “illegal.”

The current accommodation capacity of the barge is just over 200. The refit commissioned by the government will see that capacity more than doubled to 500.

Which of course inevitably means cramped overcrowding and unhygienic conditions.

Regardless of how the government tries to portray it or dress it up in benign rhetoric, this barge is intended to be used as a prison ship in which to incarcerate refugees, many of whom have fled for their lives from harrowing and torturous conditions in the hope of finding safety from war or persecution in what they believe to be a civilised country.

The barge will, after its refit in Falmouth, be tugged to Portland in Dorset where it will be permanently moored — ironically not so far from where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were unjustly deported for trying to form a union of farm labourers almost 200 years ago.

On Wednesday May 10, within a day of the arrival of the prison barge in Falmouth, over a hundred protesters gathered at a point overlooking the harbour where the Bibby Stockholm is moored, chanted and displayed No To Floating Prisons banners. Speakers called for an end to the racist violence that the Bibby Stockholm represents.

The same day also saw the House of Lords engage in an uncharacteristically heated debate on the government’s infamous Illegal Migration Bill. Even staunch establishment figures spoke vociferously against it.

The Archbishop of Canterbury used biblical quotes and texts to dramatically convey the depth of the depravity of the Bill, whilst the former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt stated that by implementing this Bill the government was “trashing the international reputation” of the country.

The Bibby Stockholm barge is undoubtedly a graphic representation and physical manifestation of this depravity and disrepute in action.

Cornwall has lately seen several heated protests against the ill-treatment of refugees.

In February, refugees being accommodated in a Newquay hotel were the target of far-right, anti-refugee groups which were prevented from gathering directly outside the refugees’ hotel by anti-racist and refugee support demonstrators who outnumbered the racists by 10 to one.

Opposition to the prison barge is also gathering pace in Portland, Dorset, which is the ugly hulk’s intended permanent destination.

Anti-racist groups in Dorset who have been campaigning to say that refugees are welcome but should not be incarcerated in dilapidated, unhygienic barges have applauded the actions of the protesters in Falmouth.

Cornwall anti-racist activists have promised to continue the protests at Falmouth docks. Watch this space.