A barge owned by Bibby Marine Ltd has arrived on Britain’s Dorset coast to provide floating accommodation for asylum seekers.
As Sky News reports, the barge will be docked for at least 18 months and has a capacity for 506 people.
Only single adult men between the ages of 18 and 65 will be housed on the barge, which has become “the new epicentre” of Britain’s migrant debate, amid the government’s failed scheme to transfer migrants to Rwanda and its controversial Illegal Migration Bill which has been criticised by the UN.
The British government says the barge will save millions of pounds on hotel rooms, but local residents and politicians have expressed concerns about division, safety and local services, Sky News reports.
Allocating the cabins to single men will avoid the need for infrastructure like schools, maternity and childcare services, it says.
Barge residents are not detained, but they will have to sign a register each time and go through port security.
The British Home Office has paid for bus services to take barge residents to nearby Weymouth for access to local services.
The British Government cites the Netherlands as another European country using "floating accommodation" to house migrants.
Read more on a Sky News report here
