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  • 3 years ago
Footage shows the inside of the Bibby Stockholm barge which is set to house 500 asylum seekers at Portland Port in Dorset.

The barge’s capacity has been upped from 222 to 506 people.

But The Independent understands that migrants will have less living space than an average parking bay.

An official brochure released by owner Bibby Marine shows there are only 222 “single en-suite bedrooms” on board, meaning that at least two people may have to be crammed into every cabin for the government to achieve its aim.

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Transcript
00:00 So I'm outside the Bivy Stockholm which is the Home Office's new asylum vessel.
00:06 They say when it reaches its peak capacity it will hold 506 adult male asylum seekers.
00:13 We've been taken for a tour on board where people have showed us facilities including
00:17 a gym, canteen and other areas where they say people can study.
00:22 But the question is, will people be able to stay here long term?
00:27 The Home Office says it's not detention but they also say that people won't be free to
00:32 leave the port.
00:33 They say they'll be able to go outside but only when a bus goes.
00:37 They say they'll be able to do activities but are put on by the government.
00:42 This is a big experiment at this stage and only time will tell if it will be one that
00:47 works in the long term.
00:49 I'm in one of the bedrooms now and as you can see behind me it's quite small.
00:54 We have two bunk beds here, an upper and a lower.
00:58 And in the room is also a small bathroom.
01:02 Each one of these rooms will have a minimum of two people in it.
01:06 When they were housing a petrol company called Petrofag it was only one per person.
01:12 And some of the rooms have been encompassing four people.
01:16 The Home Office says the rooms that will have four people are bigger than this one but they
01:20 are still extremely small.

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