The 39 asylum seekers who this week had been accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm barge, in southern English waters, have had to be disembarked after samples of the ship's water system found levels of legionella, the ministry reported on Friday. indoor.
The boat, designed to house around 500 asylum seekers, has three floors and is made up of 222 cabins.
The first migrants, all men, had begun to be accommodated on Monday, and more were expected to arrive in the coming weeks, as part of the government's policy to reduce the high bill for hosting asylum seekers in hotels. A measure condemned by both the Labor opposition and NGOs as an inhumane decision and an act of deliberate confinement.
"The health and well-being of the people on the ship is our top priority. Environmental samples from the water system at Bibby Stockholm have shown levels of Legionella bacteria that require further investigation," an Interior spokesman told the media today.
"Following these results, the Home Office has been working closely with the UKHSA (the Health and Safety Agency) and following their advice in line with long-established public health processes," he added.
"As a precautionary measure, the 39 asylum seekers who arrived on the ship this week are being disembarked while further assessments are carried out. No one on board has shown symptoms of legionella, and asylum seekers receive appropriate counseling and support." the spokesman pointed out.
The source clarified that the samples are only linked to the vessel's water system, so there is no direct risk to the community in the South Dorset area.
It is estimated that local authorities spend about six million pounds (6.96 million euros) a day to accommodate migrants who are in an irregular situation in hotels.
The director of the rights of migrants and refugees of the humanitarian organization Amnesty International (AI), Steve Valdez-Symonds, had criticized the measure this week, indicating that it is "a completely shameful way of sheltering people who have fled terror , conflict and persecution".
The news comes at the end of a week in which the British government had been making announcements about how it was trying to reduce the number of asylum seekers in a bid to win voter support ahead of a general election scheduled for next year. .
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has made cracking down on illegal immigration a top priority, is also trying to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, though that plan has run into serious difficulties in the courts.
