At least 135 asylum seekers are now living onboard the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset, according to local campaigners.
Stand Up To Racism Dorset and the Portland Global Friendship Group held a welcome meeting at the port gates on Sunday for new arrivals.
At the same time, the No To The Barge group also held a protest, concerned over the impact on the local area.
Co-ordinator of the Portland Global Friendship Group, Heather, told Sky News the number of people being placed on the barge is growing.
“The number I know is 135, but I do know that more arrived on Friday so that number will be higher,” said Heather, who did not want to give her full name.
“There’s a large amount of people on-board and they’re adjusting to life. Some of them have found it really difficult.”
Heather said asylum seekers are highlighting problems with living on-board, with claims that televisions in each bedroom have been disconnected.
“On the barge, there are no activities – the TVs are disconnected. The Home Office said it’s to encourage the guys to socialise. They don’t have meaningful activities on the barge.”
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A Home Office spokesperson said the barge’s capacity is 500, but the number of people on board may vary “due to a number of factors, including individuals exiting the asylum system once a decision has been made”.
They added: “The Bibby Stockholm is part of the government’s pledge to reduce the use of expensive hotels and bring forward alternative accommodation options which provide a more cost-effective, sustainable and manageable system for the UK taxpayer and local communities.”
The Home Office added that asylum seekers have access to communal areas, including a TV lounge.
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PM defends Bibby Stockholm
The volunteer group is now running events for asylum seekers five days a week.
Heather said: “We have conversation club, we took the guys fishing, we’ve got sports groups – all different activities put on by volunteers. We now have over 70 guys engaging with us and we get more each week as more arrive.”
A number of the asylum seekers have begun volunteering themselves, she said.
“Many of them are really keen to meet the community and get involved in things. We’ve got guys that go down to help the homeless, they give hot meals out to the homeless.
“Some are helping in charity shops and organisations around the island.
“There’s one guy who’s doing websites for community groups on the island. So they are able to use their skill set to actually support our community and make it better,” said Heather.
In a separate protest, around a dozen campaigners from the No To The Barge group marched.
In a statement, the group said: “The ordinary people on the beautiful island of Portland, Dorset are fed up, frustrated and angry about the socially divisive, unsupported mooring of the Bibby Barge.”
The UK is on a “slippery slope towards death on demand”, according to the justice secretary ahead of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying.
In a letter to her constituents, Shabana Mahmood said she was “profoundly concerned” about the legislation.
“Sadly, recent scandals – such as Hillsborough, infected blood and the Post Office Horizon – have reminded us that the state and those acting on its behalf are not always benign,” she wrote.
“I have always held the view that, for this reason, the state should serve a clear role. It should protect and preserve life, not take it away.
“The state should never offer death as a service.”
On 29 November, MPs will be asked to consider whether to legalise assisted dying, through Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
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Minister ‘leans’ to assisted dying bill
Details of the legislation were published last week, including confirmation the medicine that will end a patient’s life will need to be self-administered and people must be terminally ill and expected to die within six months.
Ms Mahmood, however, said “predictions about life expectancy are often inaccurate”.
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“Doctors can only predict a date of death, with any real certainty, in the final days of life,” she said. “The judgment as to who can and cannot be considered for assisted suicide will therefore be subjective and imprecise.”
Under the Labour MP’s proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.
The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.
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However, Ms Mahmood said she was concerned the legislation could “pressure” some into ending their lives.
“It cannot be overstated what a profound shift in our culture assisted suicide will herald,” she wrote.
“In my view, the greatest risk of all is the pressure the elderly, vulnerable, sick or disabled may place upon themselves.”
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who put forward the bill, said some of the points Ms Mahmood raised have been answered “in the the thorough drafting and presentation of the bill”.
“The strict eligibility criteria make it very clear that we are only talking about people who are already dying,” she said.
“That is why the bill is called the ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’; its scope cannot be changed and clearly does not include any other group of people.
“The bill would give dying people the autonomy, dignity and choice to shorten their death if they wish.”
In response to concerns Ms Mahmood raised about patients being coerced into choosing assisted death, Ms Leadbeater said she has consulted widely with doctors and judges.
“Those I have spoken to tell me that they are well equipped to ask the right questions to detect coercion and to ascertain a person’s genuine wishes. It is an integral part of their work,” she said.
In an increasingly fractious debate around the topic, multiple Labour MPs have voiced their concerns.
In a letter to ministers on 3 October, the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case confirmed “the Prime Minister has decided to set aside collective responsibility on the merits of this bill” and that the government would “therefore remain neutral on the passage of the Bill and on the matter of assisted dying”.
“Immediate action” is being taken after blueprints of jail layouts were shared online.
The maps detailing the layouts of prisons in England and Wales were leaked on the dark web over the past fortnight, according to The Times.
The detailed information is said to include the locations of cameras and sensors, prompting fears they could be used to smuggle drugs or weapons into prisons or help inmates plan escapes.
Security officials are now working to identify the source of the leak and who might benefit from the details.
The Ministry of Justice did not disclose which prisons were involved in the breach.
A government spokesperson said in a statement: “We are not going to comment on the specific detail of security matters of this kind, but we are aware of a breach of data to the prison estate and, like with all potential breaches, have taken immediate action to ensure prisons remain secure.”
The leak comes amid a chronic prison overcrowding crisis, which has led to early release schemes and the re-categorising of the security risks of some offenders to ease capacity pressures.
The UK will “set out a path” to lift defence spending to 2.5% of national income in the spring, the prime minister has said, finally offering a timeframe for an announcement on the long-awaited hike after mounting criticism.
Sir Keir Starmer gave the date during a phone call with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, in the wake of threats by Moscow to target UK and US military facilities following a decision by London and Washington to let Ukraine fire their missiles inside Russia.
There was no clarity though on when the 2.5% level will be achieved. The UK says it currently spends around 2.3% of GDP on defence.
A spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the two men “began by discussing the situation in Ukraine and reiterated the importance of putting the country in the strongest possible position going into the winter”.
They also talked about the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia.
“The prime minister underscored the need for all NATO countries to step up in support of our collective defence and updated on the government’s progress on the strategic defence review,” the spokeswoman said.
“His government would set out the path to 2.5% in the spring.”
The defence review will also be published in the spring.
While a date for an announcement on 2.5% will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, analysts have long warned that such an increase is still well below the amount that is needed to rebuild the armed forces after decades of decline to meet growing global threats from Russia, an increasingly assertive China, North Korea and Iran.
They say the UK needs to be aiming to hit at least 3% – probably higher.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, there will be significantly more pressure on the UK and other European NATO allies to accelerate increases in defence spending.