Bibby Stockholm

Just Stop Oil bid to block first migrants from returning to Bibby Stockholm barge

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https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/just-stop-oil-blockade-coach-returning-migrants-to-bibby-stockholm-barge/

The group unfurled a banner that read “No Prison Ships” and tried to halt the coach of migrants.

They managed to temporarily halt the coach, which had around 30 migrants on board.

The vehicle moved forward as the protesters pushed back against it before sitting down on the tarmac.

Just Stop Oil said the group were “repeatedly driven into, resulting in them leaving the carriageway for their own safety.”

Two people were arrested.

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil bid to block first migrants from returning to Bibby Stockholm barge

Fire Brigades Union launches new legal challenge against plans to hold asylum-seekers on ‘death trap’ barge

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FBU general secretary Matt Wrack, who says the union has ‘a duty to make our voices heard on matters of fire safety’

A FRESH legal challenge against the government’s stalled plan to house asylum-seekers on the “deathtrap” Bibby Stockholm barge has been launched by firefighters, their union revealed today.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) outlined its concerns over safety aboard the barge in a pre-action protocol letter sent by lawyers to Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Friday.

It had previously written to Ms Braverman asking for a meeting to discuss its concerns that the boat was a “potential deathtrap,” but the request was turned down earlier this month.

A response to the legal challenge is required by 4pm on Thursday.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack explained that the union had “a duty to make our voices heard on matters of fire safety, especially when politicians let our members and the wider public down.”

He said: “We have been sounding the alarm about the Bibby Stockholm for weeks.

“It is disgraceful that the Home Secretary is not even willing to meet us to discuss these concerns.

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Continue ReadingFire Brigades Union launches new legal challenge against plans to hold asylum-seekers on ‘death trap’ barge

Falmouth locals up in arms over migrant ‘prison barge’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/anti-racist-activists-gather-falmouth-protest-prison-barge

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The current accommodation capacity of the barge is just over 200. The refit commissioned by the government will see that capacity more than doubled to 500.

Which of course inevitably means cramped overcrowding and unhygienic conditions.

Regardless of how the government tries to portray it or dress it up in benign rhetoric, this barge is intended to be used as a prison ship in which to incarcerate refugees, many of whom have fled for their lives from harrowing and torturous conditions in the hope of finding safety from war or persecution in what they believe to be a civilised country.

The barge will, after its refit in Falmouth, be tugged to Portland in Dorset where it will be permanently moored — ironically not so far from where the Tolpuddle Martyrs were unjustly deported for trying to form a union of farm labourers almost 200 years ago.

On Wednesday May 10, within a day of the arrival of the prison barge in Falmouth, over a hundred protesters gathered at a point overlooking the harbour where the Bibby Stockholm is moored, chanted and displayed No To Floating Prisons banners. Speakers called for an end to the racist violence that the Bibby Stockholm represents.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/anti-racist-activists-gather-falmouth-protest-prison-barge

Continue ReadingFalmouth locals up in arms over migrant ‘prison barge’