'Wrong place' - residents react to end of migrant barge

After almost a year of seeing migrants being housed in a barge off the Dorset coast, people have been reacting to the news the Bibby Stockholm is to close.

The Home Office announced on Tuesday the contract for the vessel moored in Portland would not be renewed past January.

The previous Conservative government introduced the barge in a bid to reduce the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels.

But its demise has been described as "fantastic news" by the area's newly-elected Labour MP Lloyd Hatton, while residents and campaigners also shared their thoughts with the BBC.

Portland resident Sally Lesley thought the barge should never have come to the island.

"It's not that we are particularly against immigrants on Portland," she said.

"It's just the wrong environment and the wrong place and it doesn't do them any favours."

The Bibby Stockholm was met by protests last year from campaigners with concerns about conditions on-board and by residents who claimed it would be a strain on local resources.

Linda Levi said she often volunteered her time playing Scrabble and chatting with the migrants.

"I was really shocked when I heard the news because I've enjoyed helping them," she said.

"Obviously for a lot of them their mental health is paramount and they had awful trouble on the Stockholm - but I am going to miss them. There's no two ways about it."

At the time, the government said "using vessels as alternative accommodation, like our European neighbours are already doing, will be better value for British taxpayers and more manageable for communities than costly hotels".

They added officials were working "extremely closely" with local partners to "minimise disruption for local residents including through substantial financial support".

Sandy West, Portland's former mayor, said bringing the barge to the island had been a "daft decision".

"Portland is the wrong place for it. We haven't got the infrastructure," she said.

Although Ms West added she had been on the barge and felt the conditions were suitable.

"They're not horrendous - some of it is basic, obviously the cabins are small, but they've got everything they need, they're well looked after."

Giovanna Lewis, from Portland Global Friendship Group, said the men felt the barge was like a "quasi-prison".

She said she received "lots of celebratory emojis" in messages from those on-board when they heard of the Bibby Stockholm's impending closure.

"We have pictures of insects in food, food under-cooked. We've had pictures of bed bugs in the rooms," Ms Lewis told the BBC.

It was cramped, noisy and the men felt they had "no control" over their lives, she added.

MP Mr Hatton said he believed the barge was "at capacity", with about 500 male migrants living on board.

"I campaigned relentlessly to see it shut down and I'm really pleased to be able to say this is a promise made, and now a promise kept.

"Many of those men had been waiting months, if not years, for their cases to be looked at," he said.

"The reassurance is that those cases will be looked at at pace and this will mean that a decision will be made as to whether or not they will be safely and smoothly returned, or they will be here working, contributing, paying taxes and part of society."

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