Nearly 40 asylum-seekers on the government’s Bibby Stockholm barge are being moved off after the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was found on board.
The bacteria was discovered in the water supply, but it’s understood no migrants have fallen ill and the evacuation is a precautionary measure. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick is understood to be holding urgent meetings about the situation.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock branded the situation “a complete and utter shambles, a catalogue of catastrophe”.
Ministers should “hang their heads in shame” as the barge was becoming a public-relations disaster for them.
A coach ready to take the men away
(Max Willcock/BNPS)
Staff were later also due to be taken off the barge, but The Independent understands that some asylum-seekers and staff remained on board after the Home Office’s announcement on Friday afternoon.
Charity workers said that at least three asylum-seekers contacted following news reports of the outbreak had not been informed of it or issued with any safety precautions over using water on the barge.
The migrants are likely to be moved back to Home Office hotels.
The government has hoped to house up to 500 men on the controversial accommodation at Portland Port in Dorset, and the first group were moved onto it on Monday.
Around 50 people had initially been expected in the first group, following several delays and rounds of safety checks. But some transfers were cancelled after legal letters to the Home Office, which raised issues including mental and physical health issues.
In all, 39 people had been on board before the Legionella alert.
The barge at Portland, Dorset
(Max Willcock/BNPS)
(AP)
Legionnaires’ disease is a lung infection – a potentially fatal form of pneumonia, caused when a person breathes in air that contains legionella bacteria in droplets of water. It can be treated with antibiotics.
Dr Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter’s medical school, said better plumbing with hotter water would reduce the risk of bacteria spreading and coming from showers.
People over 45, smokers and heavy drinkers and people suffering from chronic respiratory or kidney disease or with suppressed immune systems are most at risk.
Dr Pankhania said nobody knew what the risk had been, but said he thought most of the migrants on the boat did not fall into those categories.
Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock branded the situation “a complete and utter shambles, a catalogue of catastrophe”.
The bacteria can spread in the showers on board
(AP)
Mr Kinnock said using barges, hotels and military bases was a sign of failure and the Bibby Stockholm was “a floating symbol of Conservative incompetence” because of a growing backlog of asylum applicants.
Ministers should be focusing on clearing the backlog of 173,000 people, he told Sky News, with enough senior Home Office staff able to make decisions on applicants.
And Mr Kinnock claimed the government appeared to have decided to be incompetent to deter people from coming to the UK.
The barge is part of Rishi Sunak’s plan to “stop the small boats”, in the hope it will “deter” English Channel crossings and reduce the £6m a day bill for hotels for asylum-seekers waiting for their claims to be processed.
(Max Willcock/BNPS)
Some 755 people were recorded crossing the Channel in small boats on Thursday, the highest daily number so far this year, confirming the cumulative total since 2018 has passed 100,000.
Since current records began on January 1 2018, 100,715 migrants have arrived in the UK after making the journey, according to analysis of official data by the PA news agency.
However, The Independent has revealed that most of the asylum-seekers so far housed on the controversial barge are not small boat migrants and arrived in the UK legally on passenger planes.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The health and welfare of individuals on the vessel is our utmost priority.
“Environmental samples from the water system on the Bibby Stockholm have shown levels of legionella bacteria, which require further investigation.
“Following these results, the Home Office has been working closely with UKHSA [the UK Health Security Agency] and following its advice in line with long-established public health processes, and ensuring all protocol from Dorset Council’s environmental health team and Dorset NHS is adhered to.
“As a precautionary measure, all 39 asylum-seekers who arrived on the vessel this week are being disembarked while further assessments are undertaken.”
Portland residents took packs containing flowers and toiletries to the port for migrants
(AFP via Getty Images)
The Home Office said no one on board had symptoms of Legionnaires’, and asylum-seekers were being provided with appropriate advice and support.
“The samples taken relate only to the water system on the vessel itself and therefore carry no direct risk indication for the wider community of Portland, nor do they relate to fresh water entering the vessel.”
If the bacteria that causes the disease get into water supplies in buildings, they can cause a risk to humans through air-conditioning systems, showers and spa pools.
Medical experts say Legionnaires’ disease does not spread from person to person and can be contracted only from contaminated water, usually when it is inhaled.
(PA Wire)
Charity Care4Calais, which supports migrants, said ministers should now realise that keeping refugees on barges was “untenable”.
Chief executive Steve Smith said: “We have always known our concerns over the health and safety of the barge are justified, and this latest mismanagement proves our point.
“The Bibby Stockholm is a visual illustration of this government’s hostile environment against refugees, but it has also fast become a symbol for the shambolic incompetence which has broken Britain’s asylum system.
“The government should now realise warehousing refugees in this manner is completely untenable, and should focus on the real job at hand – processing the asylum claims swiftly, so refugees may become contributing members of our communities as they so strongly wish.”
Fire Brigades Union assistant general secretary Ben Selby said the union still thought the barge was “a potential death trap and an accident waiting to happen”.
The Home Office declined to comment on why asylum-seekers said they had not been told anything about the bacteria or given safety precautions about using water.
