The final asylum seekers housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge left the boat on Tuesday and crew members are set to leave on Wednesday, with the controversial vessel’s final day in port expected to be 8 January.
The accommodation on the barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, will now be dismantled after the Labour government decided to discontinue the previous government’s contract to house asylum seekers on the vessel.
The last departures bring to an end a 15-month saga over the use of the barge to house asylum seekers, featuring protests, arrests and condemnation from campaign groups.
Last year Leonard Farruku, a musician who was seeking asylum after travelling from Albania, is thought to have killed himself on the barge.
Many of those housed on the Bibby Stockholm had been in the UK for a number of years and had been moved already to two or three different locations.
The news was welcomed by Lloyd Hatton, the local Labour MP for South Dorset, who called the use of the barge “an expensive and unworkable gimmick”.
A Home Office team has been processing claims from the 400 men housed on the boat. A significant majority are understood to have been granted asylum and most are expected to leave the area for accommodation elsewhere. About eight were left on the vessel when the final residents departed on Tuesday.
The local council has said that none of the men moved from the vessel will be based in other accommodation in Dorset, with reports saying they are likely to be moved to other areas including Cardiff and Wolverhampton.
The barge will be handed back to its owners, Bibby Marine, on 8 January when it will sail from the port as its contract formally expires.
The Home Office said in an announcement in July that ending the use of the Bibby Stockholm formed part of an expected £7.7bn of savings in asylum costs over the next 10 years. Extending its use would have cost more than £20m next year, according to the department.
Hatton said: “I welcome the news that the Home Office has processed all of the asylum cases on the Bibby Stockholm barge. They promised to empty the barge by the end of November, and they have made good on that promise.
“From the get-go, our entire community knew that this barge was an expensive and unworkable gimmick. The previous Conservative government landed us with this wasteful barge, by closing it down we are saving the taxpayer a small fortune.
“Working closely with the new government, I have been able to help shut down the barge for good.”
The first asylum seekers were taken on to the barge last year as the Conservative government tried to find alternatives to accommodating people in hotels, prompting protests from campaign groups.
There were also concerns from the Fire Brigades Union, which called the barge a “potential deathtrap” because of possible overcrowding and a lack of suitable fire exits.
The first group of people were taken onboard in early August last year but were promptly removed again after the discovery of potentially deadly bacteria in the barge’s water system.
There were protests when asylum seekers were brought on to the vessel again that October. Shortly before the general election, in May this year, police arrested dozens of people who blocked a road near a hotel in Peckham, south London, in an attempt to block their transfer to the barge.
It eventually accommodated 400 people, but within days of the Labour government taking power, ministers said it would no longer be used after the contract ended.
The Bibby Stockholm, an engineless specialist accommodation vessel, was previously used to house oil workers, as well as asylum seekers outside the UK.
The Home Office was contacted for comment.
