Bibby Stockholm High Court Challenge
Solidarity protest – Refugees welcome here!
Tuesday 10 Oct 9am, Royal Courts of Justice,
Strand, London WC2A 2LL
Carralyn Parkes, a Portland resident and also Mayor of Portland, is bringing a legal challenge against the Home Office to end use of the Bibby Stockholm barge planned to contain up to 500 asylum-seekers.
On Tuesday 10 October, the High Court will decide whether to allow a judicial review assessing whether the Home Office decision to place the barge in Portland Port was lawful.
Ms Parkes, who is acting in her personal capacity as a private individual and local resident, argues that the Home Office’s use of the barge as asylum accommodation can be considered a “development” under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and therefore may be a breach of planning control. She says: “If you or I want to put up a porch at our home, we need to apply for planning permission. It’s wrong that the Home Office does what it likes without complying with the same rules.
“If the Home Office had applied for planning permission, they would have had to consult with local people – but we never got the right to have our say. I believe that planning permission would have been refused.”
Ms Parkes has raised over £25,000 through crowdfunding towards the costs of the case: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/planning-challenge-to-bibby-stockholm. She says: “I’m glad to see there is so much support for what I’m doing. I think containing people on the barge is an inhumane way to treat those fleeing from war, conflict or persecution. Together I hope we can hold the government to account.”
The solidarity protest is supported by Stand Up to Racism, Stand Up to Racism Dorset, and Care4Calais. Weyman Bennett, Co-convenor of Stand Up To Racism said: “The Bibby Stockholm barge has proved to be not just inhumane but also unsafe and costly. We call on the government to plan safe passage for refugees rather than stir up hatred with talk of migration ‘hurricanes’.”
Charlotte Khan from Care4Calais said: “There’s no need for the Government to house refugees in barges, barracks and marquees, it is purely a political decision. Rather than processing their asylum claims, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman are choosing to hold the survivors of war, torture and modern slavery in these facilities. It is cruel, immoral and hugely expensive, and the only people benefitting are the private contractors who are raking in millions of pounds in profits off the backs of refugees’ misery.”
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