- Asylum barge use ends January 2025
- Labour aims to clear asylum backlog
- Focus shifts to Border Security Command
The Conservatives used the vessel to address excessive hotel costs, but the government stated that it would instead focus on clearing the asylum backlog.
Beginning in late January 2025, the Bibby Stockholm barge will no longer house asylum applicants as part of the government’s asylum system revamp.
The barge, now anchored in Dorset, was established by the previous Conservative government to reduce lodging costs for those who had arrived in the UK by small boat crossings and were awaiting hearings on their cases.
However, the Home Office has since stated that it will discontinue the contract “as part of the government’s commitment to clear the backlog and fix the asylum system” beginning next year, saving more than £20 million by not renewing it.
The Home Office claims that eliminating the use of the barge, which could hold up to 500 men, is part of an estimated £7.7 billion in asylum cost reductions over the next decade as the incoming Labour administration implements its policy.
Dame Angela Eagle, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, stated: “We are determined to restore order to the asylum system, ensuring that it dashes, decisively, and equitably and that the rules are appropriately enforced.
“The home secretary has announced plans to begin clearing the asylum backlog and save money on housing, raising enormous expenditures for taxpayers.
The Bibby Stockholm will remain in operation until the contract expires in January 2025.
The Conservative administration began utilizing the three-story barge to hold asylum seekers in August 2023, despite protests from MPs, human rights organizations, and the surrounding community.
It faced legal hurdles and protests, and shortly after the first group boarded the vessel, an outbreak of Legionella bacteria was discovered in the barge’s water system.
In December, an Albanian asylum seeker died while on board.
However, the party stood by the facility, with then-home secretary James Cleverly claiming he was “totally confident” that the Bibby Stockholm met all legal standards, adding: “We take both the physical and mental health of the people who are in the asylum estate very seriously.
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Labour has long been an opponent of the program, insisting that it would implement further steps to address the refugee backlog and illegal immigration.
The government has already shelved the Tories‘ Rwanda deportation plan, stating that funding would be diverted to establish a new Border Security Command (BSC) to combat the human smuggling gangs who operate the Channel crossings.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also committed to combating illegal migration “at source” by investing £84 million in health and education programs abroad, preventing people from fleeing their homeland in the first place.
At last week’s European Political Community (EPC) summit at Blenheim Palace, he confirmed a “deepening” of cooperation with European partners, including increasing the UK’s presence at Europol, agreeing on new arrangements with Slovenia and Slovakia to combat organized crime, and a pledge to share more intelligence to put the gangs out of business.
