Mayor of town where £20k-a-day migrant barge will be docked furious
Mayor of port town where £20,000-a-day migrant barge housing 500 asylum seekers will be docked today says ministers have ‘plonked a housing estate on us at a moment’s notice’
- Portland’s mayor has said ‘the Home Office are going to need a bigger barge’
The mayor of the port town where a giant barge housing 500 asylum seekers will be docked today compared it to having a ‘housing estate plonked on them at a moment’s notice’.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman plans to ease Britain’s migrant crisis by putting them in a three-deck ship in Portland Port, at the heart of the World Heritage Jurassic Coast.
But Portland mayor Pete Roper has hit out at the government for not consulting local residents or providing any additional support for the island.
The Dorset port was used in the 1990s to berth a prison barge, HMP Weare, a Category C prison housing up to 400 prisoners.
But Mr Roper said the floating asylum seeker centre would be different because the migrants would be free to come and go, which would have an impact on local services.
The Portland Harbour area in Dorset will soon be home to a floating migrant barge
The Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge is a 222 bedroom, three-storey vessel which can house up to 506 people
It could be the first to be used to house asylum seekers under new Government plans
Mr Roper said: ‘From a Portland point of view there has been no consultation with local councillors or even our local member of parliament, it has just been between the Home Office and Portland Port.
‘My major worry is this barge is going to be plonked on Portland Port with five hundred people on the vessel and we haven’t heard of any increase in support services for the residents of the barge or indeed for the island itself.
‘It is like having a housing estate plonked in at a moment’s notice without recognising the need for medical, security and hospitality services.
‘This is not a prison ship, we have to assume people will be free to come and go.
‘There’s a distinction between the prison ship berthed at Portland 20 years ago and this as these asylum seekers will be allowed to come and go.
‘Our health services on the island are being diminished so it’s not just an impact on Portland but the surrounding area as well.
‘I do worry about the number of asylum seekers moving through the system. There’s a large backlog of asylum claims, how many accommodation barges will be required to take these people out of hotel accommodation?
‘To misquote from the Jaws movie, I think the Home Office are going to need a bigger barge.’
The barge has a host of communal areas for socialising and dining
The type of barge would normally be used for offshore construction projects
It comes with a fully equipped games room where migrants will be able to socialise
The floating barge comes with its own exercise room featuring tread mills and rowing machines
It’s thought the vessel will cost taxpayers more than £20,000 a day to run
The Bibby Stockholm vessel, which will reportedly cost taxpayers more than £20,000 a day to run, could accommodate 506 people in its 222 en-suite bedrooms.
READ MORE: Ministers face legal action over £20,000-a-day migrant ‘flotel’ barges
The type of barge would normally be used for offshore construction projects.
Carralyn Parkes, a local Labour councillor, said it would be inhumane to house people on a barge in the port and pointed out that the prison ship had not worked, due to a myriad of problems, including people getting seasick from the swaying.
She said: ‘Every time I think that this government have plumbed the depths when it comes to its treatment of asylum seekers, it manages to go further down. It is unspeakably inhumane to take people who are the most vulnerable and traumatised people in the world and put them on a barge.
‘It’s like going back to Great Expectations and the prison hulks.
‘There’s no infrastructure on Portland to deal with people who are going to have complicated needs. Some of these asylum seekers have travelled thousands of miles, they are brutalised and will have complex psychological and physical needs.
‘We have one GP surgery with two practices serving the whole island, we don’t have a hospital. Portland Port is a secure area so I don’t know how they are supposed to access the sort of regular services like shops that most of us take for granted.
The imposing barge is set to dominate Portland Harbour for the foreseeable future
The news has sparked outrage from locals who believe the town is too small to cope with the new arrivals
‘It is outrageous. Shame on Portland Port and shame on the government for even thinking about doing this in the 21st century.’
Dorset Council is opposed to the use of the port as the site and MP for the area Richard Drax has called for Ms Braverman to scrap the idea.
It is not the first time the isle of Portland has been considered for housing migrants.
In 2003 the Home Office planned to turn ex-naval buildings at RNAS Osprey into a refugee camp housing 750 asylum seekers.
The plans were vigorously opposed by locals and after a heated public meeting there was an arson attack on the empty premises.
Many have argued that Portland is already ‘institutionalised’ as it has two prisons – HMP Verne, which houses sex offenders, and Portland YOI.
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