Asylum seekers on board the “Bibby Stockholm” should leave the controversial house ship again. The reason is legionella. The British government had stuck to the accommodation despite ongoing criticism.
Great Britain accommodated 39 migrants on a houseboat on the English coast for the first time this week – now they are supposed to leave the accommodation again because of a pathogen.
The Ministry of the Interior announced that legionella values were found in samples from the water system, which made further investigations necessary. As a precaution, all migrants should get off the barge.
Legionella are pathogens. They can cause flu-like symptoms to severe pneumonia in people. No one on board has symptoms, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said.
According to the PA news agency, the refugee aid organization Care4Calais criticized that politicians must now recognize that the accommodation of refugees on barges is “unsustainable”.
London relies on barges for asylum seekers
The government in London had long struggled to accommodate the people there. A total of up to 500 people are to be accommodated on the “Bibby Stockholm” until a decision is made on their asylum procedure.
Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to use this to both solve a space problem when accommodating migrants and avoid high hotel room costs. The first men arrived in the southern English city of Portland on Monday.
The government plans to deploy other similar barges as well. The accommodation is controversial. The fire brigade union spoke of a potential death trap.
The “Bibby Stockholm” was last used as a floating accommodation for oil workers. In the mid-1990s, she housed asylum seekers and the homeless in Hamburg. At that time it was designed for 200 residents.