2023-08-12 05:00:00
The ship Bibby Stockholm, docked in the port of Dorset, on the island of Portland, in the south of the United Kingdom. DPA va Europa Press | EUROPAPRESS
The 39 asylum seekers who arrived on the boat this week were temporarily transferred to another facility to avoid contagion.
12 ago 2023 . Updated at 08:59 h.
the controversy Bibby Stockholm does not stop giving what to talk about. The British Government has halted the sending of asylum seekers to the barge and evicted those it had already transferred this week, after traces of legionella bacteria in the boat’s water system, which serves as a detention center for simpapeles. As a precaution, the 39 asylum seekers who arrived on the ship this week are being disembarked while further assessments are carried out, Home Office officials told the BBC yesterday.
The remains of the bacteria, which causes legionnaires disease —similar to pneumonia and which in some cases can be fatal—, were detected in the system that feeds the ship’s bathrooms, but not in the tanks where drinking water is stored. No person on board has presented symptoms, the authorities guaranteed.
Interior also assured that there are no reasons to believe that the portland community is at risk. The samples taken are related to the boat’s water system and, therefore, there are no indications of direct risk to the broader Portland community, explained ministry sources, who assured that decontamination work has already begun.
The debate is revived
The discovery of the remains of the legionella revives the debate on the safety of the Bibby Stockholm. A controversy that broke out after ten days ago the Fire Brigade Union (FBU, for its acronym in English) described the boat as a death trap. This week, the Secretary of State for Immigration, Robert Jenricknot only described the conditions on the barge to accommodate illegal immigrants as decent, but also threatened those who refused to be transferred with taking away the economic subsidy they receive.
However, from the human rights collective they considered that what happened is further proof that the ship is not prepared to house human beings in decent conditions. The presence of potentially deadly bacteria on board the Bibby Stockholm it is just another revelation, and it shows that the punitive policies of this government and the negligence in managing the asylum system are not only cruel, but dangerous, said a spokesman for Freedom From Torture (Free from Torture).
The barge is part of the measures with which the Gobierno de Rishi Sunak hopes to deter the arrival of illegal immigrants. However, the Executive has not only had to deal with the criticism and now with the problems that its initiative has presented, but with the news that since 2018 more than 100,000 stubs managed to cross the border. English Channel.
Filed Under: United Kingdom
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