UK minister denies barge housing asylum seekers is a ‘potential death trap’

LONDON — Cabinet minister Grant Shapps rejected claims Wednesday that the Bibby Stockholm, a barge the U.K. government is planning to use to house asylum seekers, represents a fire safety “death trap.” 

The stark warning over the 222-bedroom ship — currently moored at Portland Port in Dorset — came from the Fire Brigades’ Union, which has written to the U.K. Home Office outlining its safety concerns over the vessel.

The ship is part of U.K. government plans to reduce its reliance on temporary hotel accommodation for asylum seekers, which currently costs the government £2.3 billion a year. 

But the FBU’s assistant general secretary Ben Selby told the Guardian Tuesday that “firefighters believe the Bibby Stockholm to be a potential deathtrap,” and warned that the barge, which can accommodate 500 people, has “not been properly risk assessed.”

Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, Selby said the union’s “main concerns are focused around those large numbers trying to pass through narrow doorways, trying to pass through narrow corridors.”

He added: “If firefighters were needed to make entry on to that, through those narrow corridors, when people were seeking to escape from it in case of a fire, how would they ever reach the seat of that fire and be able to make the necessary rescues?”

Selby drew parallels between the Bibby Stockholm and 2017’s deadly Grenfell Tower blaze, saying: “We feel like we’re looking down the barrel of another possible disaster.”

Pressed on the union’s claim Wednesday, Shapps, the U.K.’s energy secretary, told Good Morning Britain the vessel “certainly won’t be a death trap.”

“I learned that this actual ship was previously used by Germany to house migrants,” he said. “There’s no reason why it wouldn’t be absolutely safe.”

Some asylum seekers who have been told they will be moving aboard the Bibby Stockholm are already challenging the notice to move, according to the Independent.

Onboarding of the ship has been delayed, with the Home Office saying it is “undergoing final preparations to ensure it complies with all appropriate regulations before the arrival of the first asylum seekers.”