MINISTERS will ditch the Bibby Stockholm barge for housing migrants off the south coast as part of an overhaul to the asylum system.
A contract for the vessel moored in Dorset will end with the need for accommodation reduced as the asylum backlog clears, the government says.
Military RAF bases and the Bibby Stockholm were used by the previous Tory government to cut the eye-watering cost of putting migrants up in hotels.
The cost of carrying on using the vessel would cost more than £20 million next year, the government says. The contract will not be renewed in January when it is due to expire.
Savings in the asylum system as a result of changes by Labour will amount to £7.7 billion over the next decade.
Home Office Minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “We are determined to restore order to the asylum system, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced.
“The Home Secretary has set out plans to start clearing the asylum backlog and making savings on accommodation which is running up vast bills for the taxpayer.
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“The Bibby Stockholm will continue to be in use until the contract expires in January 2025.”
Five hundred people can be housed on the barge but it has been hit by several setbacks since it was commission in April last year.
There was a discovery of dangerous bacteria just days after the first arrival and it then remained empty for eight weeks.
An Albanian asylum seeker, who died while living on board the barge at the end of last year, is understood to have taken his own life.
Steve Smith, boss of refugee charity Care4Calais, said: “The Bibby Stockholm became the physical symbol for the last Government’s inhumane treatment of people seeking sanctuary in the UK.
“The despair and suffering the barge has caused will live long in the people who were residents of it. Nor will not renewing the contract bring back Leonard Farruku, whose family have lost their loved one forever.
“Whilst this is a sensible decision, at this very minute, we are in the High Court challenging the Government over the inhumanity being inflicted on over 500 men inside the Wethersfield camp.
“The current Government is choosing to fight this case when the solution should have been to end the suffering and close this camp too.”
