Asylum barge is potential new Grenfell Tower-style deathtrap
Suella Braverman considers a kinder, ‘compassionate Conservative’ response to asylum-seekers.
Isn’t it good to know the Tories are taking their responsibilities seriously?
Oh, wait…
Once they have detained people they believe have come to the UK illegally, they have a legal responsibility to ensure the well-being of those people until their future can be decided.
So, do they house these people in safe and secure accommodation? No!
They say: “We’ll put them up in a floating firetrap with no means of escape if it burns; that’s good enough for ’em!”
Or at least, that’s what This Writer gets from the following:
The Bibby Stockholm barge, intended to house 550 refugees in 220 bedrooms, has been described as a ‘potential deathtrap’.
There are no lifejackets, narrow corridors and inadequate access to fire exits.
They deserve so much better than this.
We need safe routes NOW 🧡
— Breakthrough Party 🟠🌤️ (@BThroughParty) August 2, 2023
Here’s the supporting information:
This government is so incompetent it can’t even do basic risk assessments before forking out vast numbers of millions. They really are hopeless beyond words. https://t.co/x2no0ptOVv
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) August 1, 2023
Bizarrely, if I recall correctly, the Tory government could have put the same number of people into luxury hotel rooms for less money than it has cost to hire this floating incinerator.
The Fire Brigades Union has now written to the Home Office, and you can read the letter here:
🚨 NEW | We have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman to ask for a meeting about our safety concerns on the Bibby Stockholm.
As the union representing the overwhelming majority of firefighters, we are driven by the need to prevent loss of life and protect public safety. pic.twitter.com/Y1g0QYZpOY
— Fire Brigades Union (@fbunational) August 2, 2023
It says: “Firefighting operations on vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm provide significant challenges and require specialist training and safe systems of work.”
Then it describes safety provisions on the Bibby Stockholm as “diminished” and warns that the nature of those provisions “exacerbate our operational concerns”.
The letter also states that “The FBU believes fire safety standards are universal and apply to everyone… Fire does not discriminate and therefore neither should safety regulations.”
The implication is clear: the boat is unsafe and the FBU believes it has been deliberately made unsafe on Home Office orders.
This Writer looks forward to hearing Suella Braverman’s excuse for housing asylum-seekers in a deathtrap.
I’m willing to bet it will include a lot of bullying talk and probably a bit of racism as well.
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Fascist tories will say ‘it is too costly to install life jackets, instigate a health and safety review and of course ensuring all fire exists are clearly labelled would be far too expensive! So we have decided to incarcerate all those criminal refugees in a barge and when there is a fire on board we will blame the refugees for starting this fire! Oh and by the way didn’t we do well incarcerating those nasty criminal refugees in a fire trap thereby ensuring the numbers of criminals decrease!
This is what the British public want and we are merely their fascist tory servants doing what they want which is to imprison “nasty refugees!”
Your photograph is a good illustration of when the mask slips….
Obviously the Tories were looking for an oven ready solution. Again