Now Britain will stick PRISONERS on boats: Rishi Sunak considering plans to put convicts in floating jails – after Home Office says 500 migrants would be sent to live on barges
- The plan is part of an initiative to tackle over-crowding in Britain’s prisons
- But it has sparked fears the prison ship would be unsafe and cost millions
Prisoners could be held on boats under new plans being considered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, according to Government sources.
The plan is part of an initiative to tackle over-crowding in Britain’s jails, Government insiders said.
It comes after the Home Office confirmed this week migrants would be housed on barges as a cheaper alternative to hotels.
But the plan has sparked fears it would be unsafe and cost millions to refit boats with prison security.
Talks were understood to be at an early stage and officials have been asked to see if the plans could work, according to the Sun.
Prisoners could be held on boats under new plans being considered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (pictured), according to Government sources
The prison population of England and Wales quadrupled in size between 1900 and 2018 – roughly half of this increase taking place since 1990.
HMP Pentonville was recently said to be at almost double its capacity, with 1,205 inmates in a prison built in 1842 for 520 inmates.
The latest prison count for the week up to Friday, March 31, shows the number of people incarcerated in Britain was 84,372.
The British prison population is expected to increase sharply to 99,700 by 2027, figures show.
The prison ship HMP Weare in Portland Docks, Dorset, was used between 1997 to 2005 and held 400 criminals.
But the Home Office closed it down after it was deemed ‘unnecessary’ and too costly to maintain.
Prisoners and staff complained it was claustrophobic. Don Wood, of the Prison Officers Association for the Weare, told the Guardian at the time: ‘It did feel cramped – a bit like the cabin decks of a cross-channel ferry.
‘The cells with sea views were okay, but others had no natural light so conditions were pretty miserable. The ventilation system was very old and starting to wear and it was noisy.’
The prison ship HMP Weare (pictured) in Portland Docks, Dorset, was used between 1997 to 2005 and held 400 criminals
The Home Office confirmed on Wednesday the ‘Bibby Stockholm’ barge would be used to accommodate up to 500 migrants in Portland, Dorset.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick hailed the move as part of Government efforts to trim down the current £6million-a-day cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels.
The barge would provide ‘basic and functional accomodation’ as well as healthcare and catering facilities, according to the Home Office.
There will also be around-the-clock security on board to ‘minimise the disruption to local communities’.
But the plan has also faced fierce opposition from both MPs and migrants who have raised concerns.
South Dorset MP Richard Drax, a Tory backbencher, is threatening legal action against the plan to anchor the flat-bottomed craft in Portland Harbour.
Mr Drax said the barge was being ‘dumped’ on Dorset’s door without consultation by the Home Office as he urged Home Secretary Suella Braverman to scrap the idea.
He said: ‘Every option is being looked at including legal action. We want to get this consigned to the dustbin before anything’s signed.
‘We want to activate ourselves and say “look Home Secretary, sorry, this is not the right place, can you please cancel this”.’
Mr Drax also raised concerns about the practicality of keeping hundreds of vulnerable individuals in a ‘very, very restricted area’ – placing extra pressure on the port’s ‘very small’ police force – as well as the impact on businesses in the seaside resort of Weymouth.
The Bibby Stockholm barge will provide ‘basic and functional accomodation’ as well as healthcare and catering facilities, according to the Home Office
There will also be around-the-clock security on board to ‘minimise the disruption to local communities’, according to the Home Office
The barge can house 506 people but has caused fierce opposition from both MPs and migrants who have raised concerns
South Dorset MP Richard Drax, a Tory backbencher, is threatening legal action against the plan to anchor the flat-bottomed craft in Portland Harbour
A group of migrants also suggested yesterday they would rather live rough than be housed on the vessel.
One told Sky News he feared the planned Dorset barge was a holding facility for those destined to be sent to Rwanda.
A Sudanese refugee called Imad told the broadcaster: ‘I don’t want to go… I would rather go homeless.’
A second, called Sadam, added that he ‘can’t move’ and urged people to protest outside his hotel.
Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the Home Office’s announcement about the Bibby Stockholm was ‘a sign of the Conservatives’ ‘total failure to clear the asylum backlog, tackle the criminal smuggling gangs or get any kind of grip on the system’.
She added: ‘This barge is in addition to hotels, not instead of them and is still more than twice as expensive as normal asylum accommodation.
‘It will house just 0.3 per cent of the current Tory backlog which has sky-rocketed and is continuing to grow under the Conservatives.
‘Until the Government takes serious action to clear the backlog, this problem is going to keep getting worse with more people in costly accommodation, not less.’
A group of migrants also told Sky News they would rather live rough than be housed on the vessel
Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director, also said: ‘Confining hundreds of people in isolation on a barge is just more of the political theatre that the Government has created to obscure its gross mismanagement of the asylum system.
‘Along with the disastrous Rwanda scheme, all talk of barges, cruise ships and former military barracks should be abandoned.
‘Anyone seeking asylum in this country should be housed in decent accommodation with proper facilities and, crucially, their claims should be properly and consistently processed.’
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