MP denied access to Bibby Stockholm barge will nonetheless visit Portland community and meet with barge residents
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, will travel to Portland on Monday 30 October to meet with asylum seekers accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm barge and local community members.
The visit follows the failure by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, to grant the MP permission to access the barge itself in order to assess living conditions as requested through parliamentary channels along with Clive Lewis MP, Olivia Blake MP, Paul Sweeney MSP, and Kim Johnson MP, when news broke that asylum seekers would be being sent back onto the barge.
The MP will meet with the local Labour Mayor, Carralyn Parks, who is bringing a legal challenge to the mooring of the barge in Portland harbour on the basis of planning permission violations. They will also meet local community activists who have been working to provide a welcome to the asylum seekers accommodated on the barge and a group of the asylum seekers themselves to hear about conditions onboard.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle said:
“It is so important that the voices of the people most impacted by the government’s hostile and chaotic asylum system are heard, and that is why I will be meeting asylum seekers on this trip, and also local residents who oppose the way the issue has been handled by the government.
“The private Portland port owners and Bibby Stockholm barge owners are making huge profits off the accommodation of asylum seekers in this community, while local people receive nothing, and yet they’re the ones reaching out to try to offer a warm welcome. A better system would fund Local Authorities to provide safe, community-based accommodation for asylum seekers and support so that all residents are able to access their needs.”
Giovanna Lewis, Member of the Portland Welcome Group, said:
“While some local people have been concerned about the impact this would have on our island, many people have been able to remember our common humanity and welcome our friends with support and care from a place of love. It is wonderful to be part of this.”
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