A barge, named as the Bibby Stockholm in the British press, could be about to become the temporary home of about 500 migrants who crossed the Channel, if leaked Home Office reports are correct.

Currently the British parliament is in recess for the Easter break. But, according to a report in the right-wing newspaper The Times, and echoed across the press from the BBC to the left-wing tabloid The Daily Mirror, Britain’s Home Secretary (interior minister) Suella Braverman could be about to announce a deal with the owners of the Bibby Stockholm to house migrants on board the barge while it is moored off Portland harbor in southern England.

The BBC reported that Portland Port authorities confirmed they had been "selected to provide accommodation" but that the "government has not yet commented." A spokesperson for the Home Office, however, did tell the broadcaster that "the pressure on the asylum system has continued to grow and requires us to look at a range of accommodation options which offer better value for money for taxpayers than hotels."

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'Looking at all sorts of lands, sites and vessels'

On Sunday, Braverman wouldn’t be drawn on whether she was intending to use barges when speaking to the BBC, but she did say she was "looking at all sorts of lands, sites and vessels."

Documents leaked from the Home Office suggest that plans to house migrants on barges and ships offshore were already rejected last year "due to it being more expensive than using hotels," according to the London newspaper The Evening Standard.

However, Braverman has recently repeated that the daily costs of housing migrants in hotels, which she says run to at least £6 million per day (almost €7 million), are unacceptable and that alternative accommodation needs to be found, and quickly.

On March 29, Braverman retweeted a list of measures of how the Home Office wants to reform the asylum system. She pledged to house "illegal arrivals to the UK in cheaper accommodation" as well as "ramping up immigration enforcement; signing a landmark deal with the French government to stop the criminal gangs; and increasing resources to eliminate the legacy asylum backlog by the end of 2023."

All these measures were announced under the headline pledge, "stop the boats."

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The barge

The Evening Standard describes the Bibby Stockholm as a "massive 93-meter long 'mega barge.'" It has also been described as a "floatel" (floating hotel) and according to the British press is due to be berthed in a harbor in Portland, Dorset. A part of southern England known for its natural beauty and tourist attractions.

The Times writes that the barge will cost "more than £20,000 per day" (around €22,800). The costs include about £4,500 per day to pay for a mooring or berth in Portland Harbor, and about £15,000 per day to charter the barge from its parent company Bibby Marine.

The company reportedly refused to confirm the deal but said it provides "practical, safe and comfortable" accommodation for a "wide range of clients across the globe."

A video on YouTube shows potential clients around the benefits of using the Bibby Stockholm:

Because the port is also home to other sensitive moorings, security at the port say people who have worked there is "the same as an aiport" a source told the Times. "All visitors have to be escorted, they [the migrants] will go in and out on a bus ... they’ll effectively be treated like prisoners," the person thought.

Formerly used by the Dutch government to house asylum seekers

On board the Bibby Stockholm, states the company, are 222 en-suite bedrooms, a restaurant, TV and games room, a gym and a furnished bar.

It has been used in the past by the Dutch government to house migrants as well as workers building a gas plant in the Shetland islands. According to the website, the barge is currently in the Italian port of Genoa, in north-western Italy.

The barge has been refurbished since it was used by the Dutch government. Back then it was criticised as an "oppressive environment" in which to house asylum seekers, reports the Evening Standard.

Portland harbor was formerly home to a floating prison barge -- HMP Weare. It was closed down in 2006, reports the Daily Mirror.

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Cheaper?

At present, the British government says it pays at least £6 million a day to house about 50,000 asylum seekers.

Even if the Bibby Stockholm were to be used, it would only house about 1% of the present numbers needing alternative accommodation to hotels.

The projected costs of the barge do not include food and staff costs, however, for the contract alone, the barge does look like a cheaper option, but it looks unlikely that they could find enough barges to accommodate 50,000 asylum seekers.

So far, the announced alternative accommodation options only offer a few thousand places at best, and almost all the sites already made public by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick last week are already facing opposition campaigns, sometimes from local MPs and residents within the Conservative party.

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Opposition to the idea

Even before an official announcement has been made, there are already groups who oppose the idea, including the local Conservative MP Richard Drax, and are understood to be preparing legal action to stop the plan.

Drax told the Times "we are looking at all legal routes. We will look at any way we can stop this. Every angle is being looked at." He added that he thought if migrants were to be accommodated in ports, they should be put in larger ports. Portland, he said was a "working port" and "close to a holiday resort that has its own issues."

Even the former Home Secretary Priti Patel, who also promised repeatedly to stop the boats crossing the Channel, is said to be helping her local council in Essex fight the Home Office’s announced plans to use a former military base in Wethersfield as an accommodation center for migrants.

Patel told the Times that she thought the site was too rural and "unsuitable to accommodate this scale of additional population and it does not have the infrastructure or public services in place."

Enver Solomon, the CEO of the Refugee Council, said he was worried, and if there were truth in the rumours, he thought it would be "entirely unsuitable to their needs."

Solomon added that "the use of unsutiable contingency accommodation is a direct consequence of the chronic delays and huge backlog in the asylum system. There would be no need for hotels if cases were processed promptly and effectively."

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