Backbench Labour MPs visiting Bibby Stockholm asylum seekers
Labour MPs travelling to Portland to "assess the living conditions" on board the Bibby Stockholm
Two Labour MPs have travelled to Portland today to meet some of the asylum seekers staying on the Bibby Stockholm barge.
Backbenchers Nadia Whittome and Lloyd Russell-Moyle hoped to see for themselves the conditions on board the vessel, amid criticism of the use of the barge to house asylum seekers.
Nadia Whittome said: "Visits such as this are crucial to ensure that minimum living standards are scrupulously upheld on the barge, as they clearly have not been in the recent past."
The first asylum seekers were brought back to the Bibby Stockholm barge earlier this month, more than two months after it was evacuated following the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply.
The Nottingham East MP added: "We are deeply concerned that the barge will become a place of quasi-detention for asylum seekers and be experienced as a place of punishment.”
Both MPs were “disappointed” that they were denied the opportunity from “assessing the living conditions” on board the barge earlier this month, after the Home Secretary did not respond to a letter from several Labour MPs requesting access.
Although Home Office officials said the MPs' request to access the barge was not personally reviewed by the Home Secretary.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We have welcomed visitors to view the Bibby Stockholm including local MPs and councillors, independent bodies and voluntary sector partners.”
The MPs will now meet with some of the asylum seekers living on board, as well as local mayor and Labour councillor Carralyn Parkes, who lost a High Court fight against the Home Secretary over the lawfulness of housing asylum seekers on the barge.
Mr Russell-Moyle said: "It is so important that the voices of the people most impacted by the Government's hostile and chaotic asylum system are heard, and that is why we will be meeting asylum seekers on this trip and also local residents who oppose the way the issue has been handled by the Government."
MP Whittome added: "The residents being accommodated there are in many cases clearly refugees - coming from places like Syria and Iran - and in all cases human beings who should have their asylum claims assessed quickly and fairly, instead of being used as props in the Government's theatre of cruelty."
The Home Office concluded: "All necessary tests including health, fire and water checks have been completed and are all satisfactory."