UK abandons Barge accommodation for asylum seekers amid criticism

Britain's new Labour government announced Tuesday that it will stop housing migrants on a controversial accommodation barge from next year as it tries to clear a backlog of asylum requests.

The interior ministry said the government would not renew the lease for the use of the Bibby Stockholm, moored off England's south coast, when it runs out in January.

Designed to house up to 500 asylum seekers, the accommodation has come under persistent criticism since the previous Conservative government began moving people there last August.

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak's administration said doing so would help lower the costs of housing asylum claimants, many of whom stay in hotels.

But some residents likened the barge to a prison and one man was found dead in a suspected suicide in December.

Last week, between 60 and 100 residents withdrew from meals and organised a two-hour-long sit-in during a protest to urge the government to speed up asylum procedures.

The UK has been grappling with a hefty asylum backlog, which fell to around 86,000 claimants in 2024 from a high of 132,000 last year, according to government data.

According to research group Migration Observatory, over 60 percent had waited for more than six months for an initial decision on their asylum status.

Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to clear the backlog by speeding up the process of claims.

Her department said continuing the use of the Bibby Stockholm would have cost more than £20 million ($25.8 million) next year, and that scrapping it forms part of the expected £7.7 billion of savings in asylum costs over the next 10 years.

Labour -- winners of the July 4 general election by a landslide -- has also dropped the Conservative government's controversial policy to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, which had been due to start this month.