The British pontoon Bibby Stockholm must house and deter asylum seekers

Huddled in their coats, they wait for the bus. Cigarette, scrolling a bit on their phone. Once an hour, the asylum seekers, who are all men, can travel from the center of Weymouth back to the port area where the large pontoon they are staying on is located on a blue double-decker bus.

That pontoon, the Bibby Stockholm, is moored in a private part of the harbor where asylum seekers are not allowed to roam freely. Before they are allowed on board, they must pass through security gates for a check similar to those at airports. “And you have to do that again if you want to go outside to smoke, even if it is only for two or three minutes,” says one of them, he is wearing a blue cap. “The security guards treat us as if we were criminals. It’s like we’re in a prison.”

Together with a friend, both from Pakistan, he likes to talk about what’s going on on board. It bothers them how they are treated. Anonymously, yes, because they are afraid that it will have consequences for their asylum procedure if they talk to journalists. He shows pictures of the food they get. Slices of white casino bread with a mountain of wilted vegetables. An indefinable piece of meat with bloody bits.

“The security guards treat us as if we were criminals. Like we are in a prison”

They sleep in small rooms with bunk beds, so they hardly have any privacy. Upon arrival, his friend had to hand in his kettle and iron, which he was allowed to have in his room at the hotel where he previously stayed. “You will get it back when you leave here, they said.” Only they have no idea how long that will take. “If they were to tell us that we have to be here for three or four months, we can prepare ourselves mentally for that. This uncertainty is a major problem for everyone.”

Like the rest of Europe – see the agreements the European Union made last week – the United Kingdom is also trying to get a grip on the numbers of migrants. The stay of asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm is intended as a deterrent, so that migrants deter from the dangerous crossing of the Channel. Just as the plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda should discourage them. The Supreme Court ruled in November that deporting migrants to Rwanda is not safe. But there is already legislation in the House of Commons with which the government wants to circumvent the highest court’s ruling.

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A stay at the Bibby Stockholm is mentally taxing. The recent suicide of one of the residents, a 27-year-old man from Albania, is an expression of this. although the research The circumstances of his death are still ongoing, the two Pakistanis have no doubt that it was due to poor treatment on board. “Every day he screamed and screamed. No one came to his rescue.”

Crooked looks

The residents of Weymouth also find this suicide terrible. But the asylum seekers’ stay also causes them to look askance.

Opposite the library, where the migrants receive English lessons once a week, is the Paws charity shop. Lionel Knibbs is behind the cash register, it is quiet this morning. They collect for pets, but also donate to the food bank, he says, because plenty of British people could use extra food. “We have people here who have to live on the streets and those young guys live like kings. Four meals a day, full board, heating, a free bus! I know a woman who has to pay £40 every week to get her children to school.”

“We have people here who have to live on the streets and those young guys live like kings. Four meals a day, full board, heating, a free bus!”

The point is also that the Ministry of the Interior has a large backlog in processing asylum applications. “No one has ever been able to explain to me why it takes so long to find out the background of one person. The sooner they have clarity, the better it will be for everyone,” says Knibbs.

The two men from Pakistan have been waiting for almost a year for their appointment for an interview about their case. Officials are working to clear those backlogs and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (Conservative Party) has doubled the staff for immigration and asylum. But his promise he will not be able to process all asylum applications submitted before the end of June 2022 before the end of this year.

A sober stay for asylum seekers at the Bibby Stockholm – and in former army barracks – is also intended as an answer to the consequences of these backlogs. The state pays 8 million pounds (about 9.25 million euros) daily on hotel costs for asylum seekers, an amount that is difficult to explain to British taxpayers. Only: the Bibby Stockholm appears to be more expensive per person per night than hotels. Due to fire safety, the maximum number of asylum seekers had to be adjusted downwards, a maximum of 425 people can now be accommodated. The state also pays mooring fees and costs for security and the canteen.

Radical right

After the economy is migration according to opinion research now the most important issue that British people are concerned about, above, for example, health care. But unlike in other European countries, the radical right is unlikely to come to power in the UK due to the negative sentiments in society about this.

The radical right Reform Party, formerly the Brexit Party, is rising in the polls and would now receive about 11 percent of the votes. But the British electoral system, in which only the winners of constituencies get a seat in the House of Commons, makes it very unlikely that they will win enough seats at once. After almost fourteen years in power, the Conservative Party looks set to win next year’s election.

The Conservatives hope that they can retain some of their voters with a tougher migration policy and more right-wing rhetoric. Last week, Sunak, visiting radical right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, warned that “enemies are deliberately driving people to our shores to throw our society out of balance.” If the government does nothing and the numbers increase, it will “overwhelm our countries,” he said.

Prime Minister Sunak warns that ‘enemies are deliberately driving people to our shores to throw our society off balance’

The agreements with Rwanda to deport asylum seekers there also fit in with this strategy. The British Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda is not safe enough for this, but Sunak persists. He won a first vote in the House of Commons on a bill that declares Rwanda a safe country and makes going to court much more difficult. But the Conservatives are divided on the law, so next rounds of voting could still get him into trouble. The House of Lords is also likely to be critical.

Waste of money

In Weymouth sees Lionel Knibbs of the charity shop nothing in the Rwanda deal. “A total waste of time and money. I’ve always voted Conservative, but this time I don’t know. Bring back Nigel Farage! We need someone to get us out of this mess.” Stokebrand Nigel Farage, former party leader of the Brexit Party, would indeed a return as leader of the Reform Party now that migration is once again such an important issue.

Knibbs was all for the UK leaving the European Union, he says, but he thinks the idea was poorly executed. “They should have just let everyone who works here stay and give them a free visa. We have lost too many people who picked fruit and vegetables and worked in healthcare.” Knibbs has nothing against immigrants coming to work. “Some English people do not want to work at all and prefer to live on welfare.” A record number of 6.1 million Britons receive benefits, which is more than during the corona pandemic.

During a weekly coffee afternoon in St. Mary’s church, in one of the shopping streets of Weymouth, the neat older lady Carolyn Paul also sees little in the Rwanda plan. “I think it would be terrible if those people were just unloaded there. What happens to them then? I think the government is doing this to make people believe that they are doing something.” She also sees raised eyebrows in her area about the numbers of asylum seekers. Friends who wonder what the migrants are doing here tell them what lucky people they are. “We are the fifth richest country in the world. People are afraid of losing what they have.”

“We are the fifth richest country in the world. People are afraid of losing what they have”

Paul also sees that work is available in all kinds of sectors in the UK and is fine with migrants coming for that. “Because our people don’t do those jobs.” Although she does mention an underlying discomfort. Three years ago her husband was seriously ill. “The urologist was of black African descent and he had a strong accent. It was difficult to understand him. As an older person you are vulnerable, that you are taken care of but that you do not understand what is said about you.”

The two young men from Pakistan speak perfectly understandable English. They do volunteer work and also go to English lessons, but “that is mainly to learn the British accent and save some time.” One of them already has permission to work, but because his freedom of movement is so limited on the Bibby Stockholm, he is unable to find work. “If I tell them I live on the boat, they don’t want me.”

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