Politicians, businesspeople and residents have said housing asylum seekers on a barge off a Dorset island will be inhumane, put pressure on creaking local services, create a security risk and could lead to demonstrations by rightwing campaigners.
A string of people on Portland, which is linked to the mainland by the sweep of Chesil beach, argued that anchoring the barge in an area that has some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the south of England would be terrible for those assigned to the vessel and bad for residents.
“I think it’s appalling that this government would consider putting some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people on a barge in Portland port,” said Carralyn Parkes, a local Labour councillor and artist. “There isn’t the infrastructure to care for them. We don’t have a hospital. We have a GP that covers up to about 14,000 people. Portland is cut off with one road on and one road off.
“If they do house these people here, our council will treat them with love and respect, but it’s disgraceful that in the 21st century the government is thinking about housing asylum seekers on a barge.”
The island had been hoping for a little quiet after fighting off – for the moment – a plan for an incinerator at the port. “We’re feeling a little shell-shocked by the barge idea,” said the Portland mayor, Pete Roper. “It’s a double whammy after the incinerator. We’d rather the government was focusing its efforts on creating safe asylum routes and doing something about the backlog of claims.
“If they do put this barge at Portland port, the support services need to be put in place to accommodate the asylum seekers. Obviously it’s not a prison ship – they are allowed to come out of the port and come on to the island itself.”
Not so long ago, the port provided a berth for a prison ship, HMS Prison Weare, but it was shut down in 2005 after drawing unfavourable comparisons with Victorian prison hulks. Portland port expressed regret at the time, arguing that it had been good for the economy.
“It was abysmal,” said Jim Draper, who used to work as a teacher on Weare. “The sanitation didn’t work, it smelled, it was a dire place. I suspect the barge wouldn’t be much better. If it does happen, there may be demonstrations by extreme far-right people who won’t like it. There’s already been some anti-immigration chatter on social media.”
Local Conservative politicians have also strongly criticised the plan. The Tory MP for South Dorset, Richard Drax, said the barge was being “dumped on our door” without consultation, and legal action was being considered. “We want to get this consigned to the dustbin,” he said.
Drax raised concerns about the practicality of keeping hundreds of individuals in a “very, very restricted area”, placing extra pressure on the port’s small police force. “They will be allowed out on a bus every so often but in effect will be incarcerated for quite a lot of the time,” he said.
On Tuesday, the sun was shining and a dolphin was swimming around the harbour, not far from where the barge would be anchored. Sailors and windsurfers were whizzing across the waters, which hosted the 2012 London Olympics sailing events.
Since the Royal Navy pulled out of Portland in 1995, areas of Portland and Weymouth have gone into decline. Forty percent of children in the neighbourhood around the port are in poverty. Only two of the five pubs on the road outside the port gate – which in its navy heyday used to be known as “Drunkards’ Row” – are operating.
A report last year by the South Dorset Research Group said Weymouth and Portland had become “forgotten towns in which a fragile economy, shrinking job opportunities and rising costs place increasing pressure on local communities and present few options for young people”.
One of the authors, Philip Marfleet, a Dorset member of Stand Up to Racism, said: “Refugees are welcome here. They should be offered sanctuary but it feels hostile to be putting them on a barge in Portland harbour. It looks very close to imprisonment.”
Ed Maggs, a film editor, was preparing his motor cruiser for the season as the dolphin performed flips. “It’s an inhumane idea, morally bankrupt,” he said. Gesturing towards the D-day museum on Portland, he added: “We didn’t fight the second world war to keep desperate people onboard ships.”
Kelvin Wilkie, who owns the business closest to the port, a computer services shop, said: “I’ve nothing against the people who will come here but it’s a small island and there’s not much to do. Things could go wrong.”
Kerri Chaplin, an assistant manager at the Adventure Cafe, which caters for sailors and climbers, pointed out that the island already had two prisons – HMPs The Verne and Portland. “I think that’s enough for one small island,” she said.
• This article was amended on 5 April 2023. There are two existing prisons on Portland, not one as an earlier version stated.
