Up to 500 asylum seekers could be on Bibby Stockholm barge by end of week, says minister – UK politics live | Politics

In her interviews this morning Sarah Dines, the Home Office minister, was asked about the asylum seekers who will be placed on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland. Here are the main points she made.

• Dines refused to confirm that the first asylum seekers will be moved onto the barge today, although she would not deny that either. On the Today programme she said they would be moving in “pretty soon, imminently, this week, in the coming days”. Asked why she could not just say it would be today, she told LBC she could not be specific “for security and operational reasons”.

• She said that the Home Office hopes to have 500 asylum seekers on the barge by the end of the week. On the Today programme, asked if 500 people would be on the Bibby Stockholm by the end of the week, she replied:

Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping.

[Using a barge] sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation but not luxurious.

Luxurious hotel accommodation has been part of the pull, I’m afraid. There have been promises made abroad by the organised criminal gangs and organisations which have tried to get people into the country unlawfully and they say, ‘You will be staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of a town in England’.

That needs to stop and the barge is just one of a wide range of other measures.

• She said people on the barge would have “some free movement”. Asked if they would be able to travel off the boat and onto the isle of Portland, where the barge is docked, she told LBC:

They’re going to have some free movement. You know, we’re a democratic country, of course. But there are going to be some parameters to that.

They’ve got medical supplies on board. They’ve got a gym on board and various activities to keep them occupied.

But of course, they’re going to be able to stretch their legs, get some air, get out and about, but within proper parameters.

Good morning. Downing Street has reportedly decided that today marks the start of “small boats week” in terms of its summer news grid and, on the basis of today’s front pages, whoever is running the No 10 spin operation seems to be, so far, doing a pretty good job.

The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express have both splashed on an announcement from the Home Office about fines for people who employ or rent property to migrants without a lawful immigration status are rising sharply.

This morning the BBC news is leading on reports that the first asylum seekers will be moved onto the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland today.

And, not content with “is happening” news, the Times and the Daily Mail are both splashing “might happen” reports saying that the government is considering deporting asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to Ascension Island, the British overseas territory 4,000 miles away in the south Atlantic.

In his Times report Matt Dathan says:

Ministers have resurrected proposals to send illegal migrants to Britain’s overseas territories as part of alternative options to tackle the small boats crisis …

The volcanic island, 4,000 miles from the UK in the middle of the South Atlantic, was previously considered as a location to process asylum seekers. Ministers believed its remote location would create a strong deterrent factor for migrants planning to cross the Channel in small boats.

Using Britain’s overseas territories forms part of a range of “plan B” contingencies that have been discussed by ministers and officials in case the government’s policy to deport migrants to Rwanda has to be abandoned.

The government is also in negotiations with at least five other countries over a similar deportation deal to the one agreed with Rwanda last year, The Times understands. This involves sending asylum seekers on a one-way flight to another country rather than taking them to an overseas territory temporarily.

Sarah Dines, a Home Office minister, has been doing an interview round this morning, and she in effect confirmed that the Ascension Island option was being examined.

Asked on Times Radio if the Times and Daily Mail reports were correct, she replied:

We are pretty confident that Rwanda is a legal policy. The high court and the lord chief justice found that it was, so that is what we are focusing on.

But like any responsible government, we look at additional measures, so we are looking at everything to make sure our policy works. We need to reduce the pull factor of illegal criminal gangs getting people to this country, basically abusing the system.

On the Today programme, when it was put to her that Ascension Island was a “plan B” in the event of the supreme court deciding deportations to Rwanda are unlawful, Dines said she would not use the terms “alternative” or “plan B”. But she went on: “We are looking at additional schemes across the globe, of course we are.”

And on Sky News, asked why the Home Office was considering Ascension Island when it examined, and rejected, this option three years ago, Dines replied:

Well, times change. We look at all possibilities. This crisis in the Channel is urgent, we need to look at all possibilities and that is what we are doing.

I will post more from her interviews shortly.

It’s August, and parliament is in recess, and so the political news diary is fairly empty. But we will get the only No 10 lobby briefing of the week at 11.30am.

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