Bibby Stockholm: A Year On, Campaigners Demand ‘Most Vulnerable Be Taken Off Scrapped Barge Immediately’

“Some of [the asylum seekers] have had such wretched experiences and then when you think of torture victims, rape victims being caged up on the Bibby Stockholm, it is just heartbreaking. It’s unbelievable.”

Giovanna Lewis has been supporting asylum seekers living on the Bibby Stockholm barge, in Portland, Dorset, since it was first moored there a year ago, on 7 August 2023. She is co-coordinator of the Portland Global Friendship Group (PGFG), a local volunteer-run organisation which plans activities like fishing, creative writing and conversation classes for Bibby Stockholm residents.

Last month, the Government announced that the barge – moored at Portland, Dorset and housing some 400 people – would close in January 2025 after the local MP said that the new administration agreed that it was an “unworkable, expensive and ineffective gimmick” from the Conservative Government.

However, campaigners believe the most vulnerable residents should be taken off the barge immediately.

Lewis has seen their mental health worsen first-hand, telling Byline Times of one resident who used to regularly participate in PGFG activities “then we didn’t see him for many weeks, and then when he did turn up, he was completely spaced out – he was on some sort of strong medication.”

Before January this year, Home Office policy prevented torture and rape survivors and anyone with special needs from being sent to the barge, however in August 2023, The Independent reported how it had broken its own rules by doing so.

In the last week of January, a quiet policy changed meant torture and rape survivors, and anyone who has experienced “serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence” and has had an evaluation to show they have special needs, can be sent to a site like the Bibby Stockholm, if Home Office officials decide there is a proportionate amount of support available there.

People with “serious mental health issues where there is a high risk of suicide, serious self- harm or risk to others” could also be housed on the Bibby Stockholm, if the Home Office takes that same stance. 

Campaigners warn recent crowding of the Bibby Stockholm has made the situation for those with severe mental health difficulties even worse, and that there is a lack of proper clinical support to keep them safe.

Health issues have been rampant at the barge. In the nine months from August 2023 to April 2024, the local NHS service, NHS Dorset, recorded 405 so-called ‘health incidents’ at the barge, according to data obtained by Byline Times via the Freedom of Information Act.

One in five of those incidents (81), were related to mental health, according to the data. The NHS service did not break that figure by incident type, but said it included anxiety, flashbacks, suicidal thoughts, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The trust said it did not record any suicide attempts.

Lewis said the NHS statistics are “really, really sad, and like many things in society it breaks your heart, really, the lack of mental health provision for people, and particularly asylum seekers who do have a unique situation, which makes it even harder.”

He said mental health “is an enormous issue on the barge, as far as we can see”, and added: “What often happens is, when they first come here, they’re quite shocked with what they call ‘prison-like conditions’, and then they adjust, and they accept it because they have to. And then some can make the best of the situation. But a lot sort of dip down really.”

Calls to close the barge intensified in December last year after 27-year-old Leonard Farruku, an Albanian asylum seeker, took his own life on the barge.

The policy change came less than two months after Farruku’s death which prompted 65 charities and three Labour MPs to demand its immediate closure. At that time it was revealed the barge was costing the Government £22.5 million to operate.

It also came after Home Office contractors were told that potentially deadly legionella bacteria had been detected on the barge just hours after asylum seekers were taken onboard on 7 August. The Home Office confirmed it days later and 39 people were evacuated from the vessel. People were then returned to it in October.

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No Access to Special Therapeutic Support On Site

Anna Miller, head of policy and advocacy at Doctors of the World, told Byline Times that the policy change allows the Home Office to place people with complex needs on the barge if it “can be demonstrated that their condition can be met on-site”.

“But it can never be met because there is no access to special therapeutic support on site,” she added.

Miller said any referrals to talking therapy would mean asylum seekers get put on a waiting list like the rest of the UK, meaning their condition would not be immediately treated.

Cornelius Katona, honorary medical and research director at the Helen Bamber Foundation, a human rights charity based in the UK, told Byline Times that, from a mental health standpoint, “people who have been traumatised and are vulnerable should not be in this sort of setting”. 

“A great many asylum seekers in general have experienced significant trauma before leaving their country of origin, and many experience more traumatic events during their journey,” he said. “They’re sometimes exploited, or exposed to extreme physical danger on their journey.

“I’ve had a lot of people talk to me about their sense that they might well have drowned, and sometimes people even seeing others around them drowning. Most fundamentally, they shouldn’t be expected to share rooms.”

The increased number of occupants on the barge means most people are sharing rooms. Currently, it is understood there are around 400 people residing on the barge, an increase on the 300 or so who were there earlier in the year.

“My understanding is that it’s part of the deal that you share rooms [on the Bibby Stockholm],” Katona said.

He has carried out a number of mental health assessments of people on the barge, via phone as organisations including the Helen Bamber Foundation are generally not allowed on. But he said “a lot of people” on board are scared of water, mainly because of their traumatic experiences crossing the English Channel from France.

“So being on a boat, having water on all sides, having the movement of the boat, is itself pretty scary [for the occupants],” he said.

Sharing a room can also also be traumatic for asylum seekers, Katona explained because, “as a result of their trauma, (they) are very restless at night – they might sleep badly, they might have nightmares. 

“They might shout during those nightmares, or sleepwalk. 

“If that happens, that can be very difficult for somebody else sharing the room, and it can lead to tension and arguments. So it’s bad for the person who’s traumatised, and it’s bad for anybody sharing with them.”

There are also concerns that there is very little monitoring of health conditions on the Bibby Stockholm after asylum seekers first enter the barge.

“There’s no provision for regular monitoring, so they will not get an assessment until a need is seen,” Katona said. “That’s where I think there’s a problem, is that the onus is on the person being accommodated, that if they have a problem, they should make people aware of it.”

He and Miller also point to the substantial stigma around mental health which exists among many asylum seekers – meaning they are likely to not report it, increasing the need for regular assessment. 

“It may also be difficult for them to disclose the nature and extent of the trauma that they’ve suffered, and the nature and extent of their consequent mental health problems, particularly when you know, they’re fresh off the boat, so to speak,” Katona said.

They may also not know how the mental health system works in the UK, or whether making authorities aware of their mental health difficulties could jeopardise their asylum claim, he said.

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Not Learning the Lessons

Anna Miller, of Doctors of the World, said that the policy change demonstrates that the Home Office has “not learnt the lessons of the Brook House Inquiry”.

Last year’s inquiry into the migrant removal centre, which is near Gatwick Airport, found it was a place of “stress and distress”.

Inquiry chair Kate Eves also found that the site was “entirely unsuitable for detaining people for anything other than a short period”.

“It has completely replicated the problems around Brook House,” Miller said. 

“None of these services are anywhere close to what you would describe as a trauma-informed service”.

Byline Times contacted the Home Office for comment but is yet to hear back. NHS Dorset referred Byline Times to the Home Office for comment.