Government insists Bibby Stockholm is safe after threats of legal action
Suella Braverman has said she is ‘confident’ the Bibby Stockholm barge is safe to house people after concerns were raised by firefighters in a letter raising the possibility of legal action.
The Home Secretary also did not dismiss reports that asylum seekers who enter the country via unauthorised means could be fitted with electronic GPS tags.
There is currently nobody living on the vessel moored in Portland Port, Dorset, as test results released just days after the arrival of the first migrants revealed the presence of Legionella bacteria.
It was just the latest in a string of setbacks for the project, which forms a major part of government plans to tackle a record asylum backlog.
Now, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has sent a ‘pre-action protocol letter’ to Ms Braverman describing its concerns about the safety of the vessel, after previously describing it as a ‘potential death trap’.
Among the points flagged in the FBU’s letter are access to fire exits and the possibility of overcrowding on the Bibby Stockholm.
General Secretary Matt Wrack said: ‘We have been sounding the alarm about the Bibby Stockholm for weeks.
‘It is disgraceful that the Home Secretary is not even willing to meet us to discuss these concerns.’
He added: ‘Fires do not discriminate based on immigration status, and neither can fire safety regulations.’
Ms Braverman told BBC Breakfast: ‘Let me be clear that I’m confident barges are safe.’
Accusing the union of launching a ‘political attack’, she continued: ‘This barge has accommodated people in the past – asylum seekers, oil rig workers and barges of this kind have been used to accommodate asylum seekers, for example in Scotland, so I’m very confident that this barge is safe for human habitation.
‘We followed all of the advice and protocols in anticipation of embarkation.’
This week, Channel crossings crossed 19,000 for the year so far, a decrease compared to the same point in 2022 but still a considerable distance from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to ‘stop the boats’ altogether.
With the backlog of asylum cases soaring to a record high of 175,000 at the end of June, The Times has reported that officials are considering electronic tagging as an alternative to limited detention sites for people arriving illegally.
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Braverman said: ‘We need to exercise a level of control of people if we’re to remove them from the United Kingdom.
‘We are considering a range of options. We have a couple of thousand detention places in our existing removal capacity.
‘We will be working intensively to increase that but it’s clear we’re exploring a range of options, all options, to ensure that we have that level of control over people so that they can flow through our systems swiftly to enable us to thereafter remove them from the United Kingdom.’
Labour have pointed to 12 consecutive days of small boat arrivals in the UK as evidence that the government’s methods for tackling the issue are not working.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock said: ‘Rishi Sunak said he would stop the boats. You can’t believe a word he says. The time for gimmicks is over.
‘The Tories need to stop chasing headlines and implement Labour’s plan to tackle the dangerous small boat crossings, by going after the criminal gangs, negotiating a deal with the EU based on returns and family reunion, and clearing the asylum backlog which is costing £6 million a day in emergency hotel bills.’
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