Grant Shapps, energy security secretary, says it would be ‘irresponsible’ not to use oil from North Sea
Housing asylum-seekers on the Bibby Stockholm “floating prison” would be “inhumane” and risks “retraumatising” people who have escaped war zones and other “horrors”, the leader of a refugee charity has warned.
Steve Smith, the CEO of Care4Calais, also expressed his fear that the barge being prepared to accommodate more than 500 refugees at Portland, Dorset, is an “accident waiting to happen” because of insufficient fire safety on board with the Government putting money as a “higher priority than people’s lives”.
You are not being detained under immigration powers, and this is not detention accommodation. You are free to leave the site, but we would request that you sign in and out of the site when you leave and return, so we can assure your safety.
The obvious fire hazard of moving a large number of people across to the Bibby is clearly causing a delay.
We know the Bibby barge was intended for 220 people, we know the intent is to put 506 residents aboard but, by the time you add security staff and other staff, that would come to 546.
Housing any human on a ‘floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is unacceptable. Doing so to people like this is completely inhumane.
Our concern in many cases, probably most cases, is that these will be individuals who have crossed the Channel in flimsy boats and they don’t do this for fun.
What can we do? Speed up asylum claims process, clear the backlog, provide safe passage, allow people to start working and integrate better into the community and then concerns about it costing us £6 million a day start to dissipate.
I think people deserve to have an MP that represents them wherever they are.
It’s just making sure your MP is engaging with you, representing you, whether that’s speaking in parliament or being present in their constituencies doing surgeries, answering your letters.
Well, at the moment, people aren’t being properly represented.
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