U.K. Small Boats' Week
Monday- Only 15 asylum seekers placed on the 500+ Bibby Stockholm before legal challenges force a halt.
Tuesday- Local Mayor launches legal challenge over the Bibby Stockholm's lack of planning permission.
Wednesday- Government threaten to leave the ECHR. Again. Yawn...
Thursday- Number of small boat arrivals hits 100,000, making Lee Angry Anderson very angry. Very Angry.
What will Friday bring? This had better be good.
Here we go. This seems like a fitting end to the U.K. Small Boats Week farce, though it's still only Friday lunchtime. The asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm have been moved off the ship because they have found legionella in the water.
There is a dark comedy god on this island. Maybe a bit too dark.
"The presence of life-threatening bacteria onboard the Bibby Stockholm is just another shocking revelation that we’ve seen unfold over the past few weeks.
This government’s punitive policies and deliberate neglect of the asylum system is not just cruel, it’s dangerous.
This government urgently needs to stop forcing refugees into unsafe accommodation, and focus their efforts on rebuilding a compassionate and efficient system."
Kolbassia Haoussou,
Freedom From Torture,
UK
"We have always known our concerns over the health and safety of the barge are justified, and this latest mismanagement proves our point.
The Bibby Stockholm is a visual illustration of this government’s hostile environment against refugees, but it has also fast become a symbol for the shambolic incompetence which has broken Britain’s asylum system.
The government should now realise warehousing refugees in this manner is completely untenable."
Steve Smith,
Care 4 Calais.
It's been a dark week for refugees and ounces of compassion in the U.K., but if one thing is giving me hope it's this.
There are so many charities and NGOs like Care4Calais, Freedom From Torture, Refugee Council, JCWI, and others who are doing such an amazing job of holding the government to account over their cruel and inhumane asylum policies.
They are the opposition.
ProjectFearlessness