[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Zizu

I’m out of touch with this news story .. did the guy suddenly die on the same day they were taking a crucial vote on the Rwanda bill ??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

yes and that is why I asked if he were murdered..

I have read up about its previous use now, and after the listening to the resident who was interviewed last night his main beef seemed to be that they were searched on return to the barge, anyone who has been on a cruise ship and got off will undergo the same when returning to the ship so not sure what the big deal is with that, his other issue is that they were not given information about the man that died

Bibby Stockholm is an engineless barge owned by Bibby Marine. It was built in 1976, and was converted into an accommodation barge in 1992. It was formerly known as Floatel Stockholm and Dino I.

The barge has previously housed oil and gas workers, as well as asylum seekers in other countries.

Between 1994 and 1998 the boat provided 52 overnight beds for the homeless in the German city of Hamburg.

In the 2000s it was used to detain asylum seekers in the Netherlands but was taken out of service after an undercover investigation by a Dutch newspaper revealed mistreatment by prison officers, instances of rape and fire safety failings.

In February 2008 an Algerian asylum-seeker Rachid Abdelsalam died from heart failure on board. At the time, barge residents claimed that although they warned the guards of Mr Rachid’s ill health, his cell door was only opened two hours after he died, the monitoring organisation State Watch reported in 2012.

Bibby Stockholm was used in 2013 by fuel company Petrofac to accommodate construction workers running Scotland’s Shetland Gas Plant in the North Sea.

In August 2017 there was talk of the barge being used as university acommodation in Galway, Ireland, but these plans were ultimately scrapped.

The UK Government announced plans to use the barge to house asylum seekers at Portland Harbour in April 2023.

In July 2023, an open letter signed by over fifty NGOs and campaigners, including the Refugee Council, called on Bibby Marine to acknowledge its founder John Bibby’s links to the Atlantic slave trade, and to stop holding asylum seekers on its vessels.