As the final decorations are placed on Christmas trees across the country and families get together to exchange gifts and enjoy turkey with all the trimmings, asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge are expecting another “boring” day on Monday – standing in long queues for food they say is inedible, in the cramped accommodation they describe as “a floating prison”.
The controversial Home Office barge, moored in Portland, Dorset, is home to more than 300 asylum seekers. Officials insist it is necessary to use it to reduce the £8m per day hotel bill to accommodate those seeking refugee status. The government has said it will publish the cost per head of housing people on the barge in the New Year. Corporate Travel Management (CTM) have been awarded a £22,450,772 two-year contract to manage the barge.
