UK Home Secretary wants to house refugees on barges
The accommodation barge "Bibby Stockholm", pictured here, will be installed in the port of Portland, in the south of England. AFP--
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It is an announcement already much criticized: Suella Braverman, the British Home Secretary, wants to dissuade refugees from reaching the English coast. The one who wants to send asylum seekers to Rwanda said that a boat, moored in the southwest of England, had been set up to house migrants who arrived illegally in the territory.
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With our correspondent in London, Marie Boëda
A ship, or rather a barge, 91 meters long. This type of flat-bottomed boat was initially used to transport goods. But not Bibby Stockholm, that's his name. He previously stayed in a port in the Netherlands, and housed asylum seekers. These housing conditions, considered oppressive by its opponents, ended in 2005.
Since then, the boat has been renovated, insists the British Home Secretary. Just over 500 people, adult men only, will be accommodated in the 222 rooms. Suella Braverman intends to extend this process to other English ports.
Safe, functional and more than adequate housing, she says, that costs significantly less than hotels hosting more than 50,000 refugees today. A cruel choice, according to migrant aid associations, which are considering legal action with the help of a Conservative MP from the region.
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- United Kingdom
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