London
UK’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under mounting pressure on Saturday over the government’s plan to house asylum seekers on a large barge docked in south-west England after the first set of migrants had to be removed just days after being moved in over a dangerous bacteria outbreak.
The Bibby Stockholm, a floating vessel docked at Portland in Dorset, opened to its first set of migrants earlier this week amid controversy as human rights groups questioned its suitability as a long-term accommodation.
However, the government insisted that it was an essential part of its plans to address the soaring taxpayer-funded hotel bills to house migrants while their asylum claims are processed.
But on Friday it emerged that bacteria which causes Legionnaires disease, a kind of pneumonia, was found in the water supply and all 39 migrants had to be moved out to alternate accommodation. The health and welfare of asylum seekers remains of the utmost priority. All asylum seekers accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm have now been disembarked as a precaution and moved to alternative accommodation, a UK Home Office spokesperson said.
The Home Office and our contractors are following all protocol and advice from Dorset Council’s environmental health team, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Dorset NHS who we are working closely with, the spokesperson said.
