The immigrant barge at Portland

I was on Portland recently, having lunch with friends at the Jailhouse Café inside The Verne Prison. From the garden there you can look down on much of the vast Portland Harbour, including the quays and jetties at the foot of the cliffs. I was intrigued to see the Bibby Stockholm moored there. This is the floating accommodation intended for immigrants whose applications are being considered. It is a supposedly cheaper substitute for putting them up in hotels. It can house over 500 people, but at the moment very few are inside, because the entire notion of keeping people on the barge has been dogged by difficulties such as concerns over fire safety, legionnaire disease in the pipework, and its perception as a kind of floating prison. 

Anyway, it has reached Portland and looks set to stay there. Here are two shots I took of it from The Verne high above. 

I must say I was expecting to see something rather larger. 

It's that very compact oblong structure left of the orange maintenance rig with the white crane, and below the ship with the red hull. It looks utilitarian, but if the accommodation is about the same standard as you find on the average oil drilling platform, then anyone accommodated there wouldn't have a lot to complain about unless used to plenty of home comforts. Space, privacy, serenity, and a host of interesting things to do might all be lacking, but it wouldn't be a hell-hole unless the 'guests' trashed the place. (On the other hand that's a possibility not to be dismissed) 

Tap on the photos to get a larger view. I can count two main gangways into the barge, and two smaller ones. If a fire did break out, four gangways might not be enough to guarantee the safe evacuation of several hundred people unless they were highly disciplined and didn't panic. Quite a big ask, I'd say.

I saw no sign of life. 

Has the fuss made about this barge been justified? It's obviously better than some kind of internment camp (on the lines of ex-army nissen huts behind barbed wire), but I'd personally hate to be cooped up inside such a small structure for months on end while my application went through. While aboard, there would be a certain amount of supervision and security to contend with, certainly rules to observe. I dare say that it would seem a bit prison-like, and I can't believe that 500-odd men, even if they had their own rooms, wouldn't get bored and impatient and become a source of trouble to both the authorities and to each other.