A “significant” number of asylum claimants has agreed to board a Dorset barge after the Government refused to offer them an “à la carte” range of alternatives, a minister said on Wednesday.
Robert Jenrick said more will embark on the 500-capacity Bibby Stockholm in the coming days after an initial batch of 15 on Monday - when up to 20 people refused and filed legal challenges.
The immigration minister also refused to rule out a UK exit from the European Convention on Human Rights, as the Conservatives hone their anti-Labour attacks about asylum policy for the upcoming General Election.
“We’ll do whatever is necessary ultimately to defend our borders and bring order to our asylum system,” he said on Times Radio as he promoted a new migration partnership with Turkey.
Refugee groups insist that asylum seekers have every legal right to challenge their forced relocation to the barge, which is moored off Portland, and have accused the Government of threatening to make them homeless if they refuse.
But Mr Jenrick said the Government, while legally bound to provide basic accommodation, was under no obligation to offer them an “à la carte menu” of options as it battles to cut down a daily bill of £6m on asylum hotels.
“We’ve written to those individuals who have so far declined to travel, and as I understand a significant proportion of them have already changed their minds and agreed to move,” the minister said.
“A significant number moved yesterday. I expect more will move in the coming days. And so I think this issue will be resolved. But as I say, we’re a generous country. We want to support people appropriately and in accordance with the law.
“If you’re destitute then obviously you’ll accept the decent accommodation that the state is able to provide for you.”
A Home Office spokesperson refused to say how many were now aboard the Bibby Stockholm.
But Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper slammed the barge as “a sign of failure” by the Government, noting that 10,000 more asylum claimants have been moved into hotels since Rishi Sunak vowed to “stop the boats” coming across the Channel as one of five pledges the Prime Minister made in January.
The asylum backlog now stands at 173,000, costing the taxpayer £5,000 every minute for hotels, she said.
Labour would end the use of hotels and barges, “going back to the low-cost, long-standing asylum accommodation of which we have tens of thousands of places in this country”.
But pressed on Labour’s asylum policy answer if the party is returned to power, Ms Cooper said: “We don’t know what the scale of the chaos is going to be.”
