Barge to house asylum seekers looks like a prison and is treated like one. What is it?
Has the plan to house asylum-seekers on the 222-berth barge Bibby Stockholm come unstuck with its comparison to a floating prison?
Tory ministers may be claiming it hasn’t…
#KayBurley – Is the barge a floating prison?
Richard Holden(Roads Minister) – No#KayBurley – Can people come & go as they like?
RH – No… ports are a protected area
KB – So it's a type of prison?
RH – No, it's not a type of prison#BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/kdhp5lHAcr
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) April 6, 2023
… but they would have been better-off checking their history books first.
Allow me to introduce you to HM Prison Weare:
Formerly known as the Bibby Resolution, HMP Weare was moored at – guess where? – Portland Port near Weymouth, where it held 400 prisoners between 2004 and 2005 when it closed due to costly running, being unnecessary and the cost of millions of pounds in order to refurbish it.
The prison was reopened a few months later for a short period. Not long after, the prison closed permanently and was sold off after conditions on board were criticised by the Chief Inspector for Prisoners, who complained that inmates had no exercise and no access to fresh air, also stating the ship was “unsuitable, expensive and in the wrong place”
So: poor conditions, costly and unnecessary.
May we expect to see the same conditions prevailing with HMP Weare’s sister ship, Bibby Stockholm?
Here’s a better idea for it:
Instead of using this Dickensian monstrosity to house asylum seekers I suggest we moor it outside Westminster and the MP’s can use it instead of 2nd homes.
Now that would save money. pic.twitter.com/U40yHJzvUE
— BladeoftheSun (@BladeoftheS) April 6, 2023
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Fascist tories don’t know facts even when it is obvious this barge is a prison and yes the refugees will be prisoners wherein they will be locked up 24/7 with guards constantly surveilling their every movement!
Good idea putting the barge alongside Houses of Parliament so all those fascist tory MPs can be housed in the barge whilst Parliament is renovated! Now that would be a useful notion but fascist tories are obsessed with imprisoning refugees because they don’t want ‘nasty foreigners setting foot on their sacred little england!’