Bibby Stockholm: Asylum seekers face withdrawal of government support if they don’t board barge

Published

2 years ago

August 9, 2023

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Asylum seekers who did not get on the Bibby Stockholm on Monday have until today to board the vessel or face having their government support cancelled, Sky News can reveal.

While 15 people last night boarded the barge in Portland, Dorset, around 20 people did not take up the offer made on what the government has called a “no-choice basis”.

Sky News has seen a letter sent by the Home Office to one of those people who stayed on dry land.

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It states: “Arrangements were made for you to travel from your accommodation… to alternative accommodation at the Bibby Stockholm in Portland on 7 August 2023.

“On 7 August you did not take up the offer of this accommodation.

“Please consider this letter a second notification to change your accommodation with arrangements in place to move you to the Bibby Stockholm, Portland on 8 August 2023.

“Accommodation is offered on a no-choice basis. Where asylum seekers fail to take up an offer of suitable accommodation without a reasonable explanation, there should be no expectation that alternative accommodation will be offered.

“If you do not travel tomorrow, on 8 August 2023, arrangements for ceasing the support that you are receiving from the Home Office may commence.”

It is not clear whether this means the person in question would be left homeless.

Asked if the government was breaking its legal duty to asylum seekers, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk told Sky News: “Those who object to going on the barge can seek legal advice and try to resist it in the normal way and we will have those arguments played out in an independent court. That’s absolutely right.”

He described the barge as “basically safe and decent” and said the policy was about “fairness to the British taxpayer” to find a cheaper alternative to “four star hotels”.

The Bibby Stockholm will ultimately hold 500 asylum seekers who are expected to board the barge gradually.

On Monday, Cheryl Avery, the director of asylum accommodation at the Home Office, said the first cohort was made up of 15 people.

She added: “We have had a few challenges, but this is part of an ongoing structured process to bring a cohort of up to 500 people on board.

“There have been some challenges, some minor legal challenges, and I can’t go to the detail of those, but accommodation is offered to all individuals on a no-choice basis – so we are looking at how we manage that going forward.”

The Care4Calais group says about 20 asylum seekers did not board the barge because their transfers were “cancelled” due to legal challenges.

The charity claimed solicitors raised concerns about the suitability of the accommodation for people with disabilities, mental and physical health problems, as well as those who had fled torture and persecution.

Care4Calais chief executive Steve Smith said: “None of the asylum seekers we are supporting have gone to the Bibby Stockholm today as legal representatives have had their transfers cancelled.

“Amongst our clients are people who are disabled, who have survived torture and modern slavery and who have had traumatic experiences at sea. To house any human being in a ‘quasi floating prison’ like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. To try and do so with this group of people is unbelievably cruel. Even just receiving the notices is causing them a great deal of anxiety.”

Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, said: “It seems there’s nothing this government won’t do to make people seeking asylum feel unwelcome and unsafe in this country.

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“Reminiscent of the prison hulks from the Victorian era, the Bibby Stockholm is an utterly shameful way to house people who’ve fled terror, conflict and persecution.”

Sky News has approached the Home Office for comment.

Politics

Jingye and Whitehall officials hold talks over British Steel future

Published

1 hour ago

July 9, 2025

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Jingye and Whitehall officials hold talks over British Steel future

The Chinese owner of British Steel has held fresh talks with government officials in a bid to break the impasse over ministers’ determination not to compensate it for seizing control of the company.

Sky News has learnt that executives from Jingye Group met senior civil servants from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) late last week to discuss ways to resolve the standoff.

Whitehall sources said the talks had been cordial, but that no meaningful progress had been made towards a resolution.

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Jingye wants the government to agree to pay it hundreds of millions of pounds for taking control of British Steel in April – a move triggered by the Chinese group’s preparations for the permanent closure of its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe.

Such a move would have cost thousands of jobs and ended Britain’s centuries-old ability to produce virgin steel.

Jingye had been in talks for months to seek £1bn in state aid to facilitate the Scunthorpe plant’s transition to greener steelmaking, but was offered just half that sum by ministers.

British Steel has not yet been formally nationalised, although that remains a probable outcome.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has previously dismissed the idea of compensating Jingye, saying British Steel’s equity was essentially worthless.

Last month, he met his Chinese counterpart, where the issue of British Steel was discussed between the two governments in person for the first time.

Jingye has hired the leading City law firm Linklaters to explore the recovery of hundreds of millions of pounds it invested in the Scunthorpe-based company before the government seized control of it.

News of last week’s meeting comes as British steelmakers face an anxious wait to learn whether their exports to the US face swingeing tariffs as part of US President Donald Trump’s trade war.

Sky News’s economics and data editor, Ed Conway, revealed this week that the UK would miss a White House-imposed deadline to agree a trade deal on steel and aluminium this week.

Jingye declined to comment, while a spokesman for the Department for Business and Trade said: “We acted quickly to ensure the continued operations of the blast furnaces but recognise that securing British Steel’s long-term future requires private sector investment.

“We have not nationalised British Steel and are working closely with Jingye on options for the future, and we will continue work on determining the best long-term sustainable future for the site.”