UK Plans to Begin Housing Asylum Seekers on Barge This Week
(Bloomberg) -- The UK will begin housing asylum seekers on a barge in southern England this week as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government steps up its focus on immigration in order to highlight dividing lines with the opposition Labour Party.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Musk Says He May Need Surgery, Will Get MRI on Back and Neck
Moody’s Cuts US Banks on Mounting Funding Costs, Office Risk
Eastern US Prepares for a ‘Potent’ Storm System: Weather Watch
People will be moved onto the vessel moored in Portland, Dorset “imminently,” with “quite possibly” 500 living there by the end of the week, Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told BBC radio on Monday. The government is also increasing fines for businesses or landlords who employ or accommodate people who don’t have permission to live and work in the UK.p
“We’re determined to make sure there isn’t that pull factor,” Dines told Sky News on Monday, referring to the plan to use the Bibby Stockholm barge as an alternative to housing asylum seekers in hotels. “What it sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation, but not luxurious accommodation.”
Sunak is trying to bear down on cross-channel immigration by asylum seekers that’s soared in recent years, with more than 15,000 arriving by small boat so far this year. One of the five key promises he’s told voters to judge him by is to “stop the boats,” and the government has pursued a series of divisive measures including a new law placing a legal duty on the government to detain and remove those arrivals, alongside plans to deport them to Rwanda.
After the Court of Appeal ruled the Rwanda plan unlawful in late June, a decision the government is seeking to overturn in the Supreme Court, ministers are also looking for other solutions. The Times and Mail newspapers reported that the government is re-considering sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island to have their claims processed, a policy that was previously considered by former home secretary Priti Patel in 2020 but dropped on logistical grounds. The isolated territory lies 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) away in the Atlantic Ocean, has only a small hospital and a population of fewer than 1,000.
Dines refused to deny the Ascension plan is being looked at again, saying only that “lots of other alternatives are always discussed.” In a sign that the government views immigration as a wedge issue to peel of Labour voters, Dines in her BBC radio interview repeatedly mentioned the opposition, saying it had no plan to deal with cross-channel boat crossings. Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, however, at the weekend ripped into the Tory record and said Labour would fast-track asylum decision, crack down on people-smuggling gangs and tackle humanitarian crises at source.
The Tories trail Labour by around 20 points in recent national polls, and Sunak is seeking to emphasize policy differences that he thinks will regain the electoral edge for the Tories. As well as pushing immigration policy, in recent weeks, he’s also softened positions on green policies in a rightward tack designed to generate momentum.
Read More: Sunak Gambles With Lurch to Right as UK Moderates Flee to Labour
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
Teen Gamers Swiped $24 Million in Crypto, Then Turned on Each Other
Honoring the Enslaved Man Who Made Jack Daniel’s First Whiskey
Private Credit Funds Move From Mergers to Timeshares and Car Loans
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
