Braverman ‘angry and frustrated’ with civil servants over migrant barge fiasco
Charles Hymas
Mon, August 28, 2023
The Bibby Stockholm barge is intended to accommodate 500 asylum seekers
Suella Braverman has said she is “angry and frustrated” with civil servants who oversaw the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge fiasco.
The Home Secretary voiced unhappiness with the handling of the situation, in which 39 asylum seekers were evacuated from the barge in Portland, Dorset, after the discovery of Legionella in its water supply.
They were allowed onto the barge despite contractors hired by the Home Office knowing that they had yet to receive the results of tests by Dorset environmental health officers for Legionella bacteria, which can cause the deadly Legionnaires’ disease.
The test results on Aug 7, when the first asylum seekers arrived on the barge, were positive – but ministers were not told until the evening of Aug 10, when they ordered all 39 people to be evacuated.
It subsequently emerged that a Home Office official was at a meeting on Aug 8, when Dorset officials and contractors discussed the findings.
“Am I disappointed with what’s happened? Am I frustrated with what’s happened? Am I angry with what’s happened? Absolutely. I am, and I’ve made it very clear to the [contractors] involved, to the civil servants involved who oversaw that,” Mrs Braverman told the BBC.
“I ultimately take responsibility. The buck stops with me for everything that happens at the Home Office, and we’re working very quickly to remedy the situation and move people back onto the barge as quickly as possible.”
It is still not clear whether Home Office officials knew the test results had yet to be returned for Legionella before they told ministers the barge had the all-clear to receive asylum seekers.
It is understood that there was no requirement under health and safety protocols to block the arrivals to await the test results. However, it was still seen as an embarrassment to disembark the asylum seekers on such a high-profile accommodation project.
Dorset Council expects to report the results of new tests later this week, meaning the first asylum seekers could return within the next seven days.
However, Mrs Braverman declined to give a deadline but maintained the barge was “safe” despite the threat of legal action from firefighters over what it claims are fire risks. The Fire Brigades Union has sent a “pre-action protocol letter” to Mrs Braverman, having previously warned that the barge is a “potential death trap”.
“Let me be clear that I’m confident barges are safe,” she said. “This barge has accommodated people in the past – asylum seekers, oil rig workers – and barges of this kind have been used to accommodate asylum seekers, for example, in Scotland. We followed all of the advice and protocols in anticipation of embarkation.”
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