(London) Britain’s new Labour government announced Tuesday it would end the use of a controversial barge to house asylum seekers, scrapping a flagship measure of the previous Conservative government.
Moored in a port in the south of England for almost a year in order to reduce the bill for hotel nights, the barge “Bibby Stockholm” can accommodate up to 500 migrants.
Denounced by its opponents as a “floating prison”, this barge was one of the many controversial measures deployed by the previous conservative government, soundly defeated in the July 4 elections, to manage the influx of asylum seekers and discourage illegal immigration into the country.
A man died there last December, with some associations suggesting suicide.
The government has decided “not to renew the contract to use the barge Bibby Stockholm,” it announced in a statement, specifying that this move was part of a plan intended to save 7.7 billion pounds (nearly 14 billion Canadian dollars) over the next ten years.
The government is pushing forward its desire to address backlogs in asylum applications, which are costing significant amounts of public money, particularly on accommodation. Continuing to use the barge beyond the current contract, which runs until next January, would have cost more than £20 million (about CAD 35 million) next year, according to the government.
“We are determined to put the asylum system back in order, so that it works quickly, firmly and fairly, and that the rules are effectively implemented,” Secretary of State for Border Security and Asylum Angela Eagle said in a statement.
Last week, dozens of asylum seekers housed on the barge demonstrated to demand that the Labour government speed up the processing of their cases.
According to official figures, 86,000 asylum applications were pending in 2024, compared to 132,000 last year.
The decision on the fate of “Bibby Stockholm” was watched and awaited in the United Kingdom, where Labour buried the highly controversial Conservative plan to deport migrants to Rwanda upon coming to power.