“I feel locked in” - life on the Bibby Stockholm

Lisa Matthews, Policy and Campaigns Manager, 22nd April 2024

We all want a home. And we all should be able to live alongside each other in our communities, with hopes and dreams in a shared future. But government policy is stopping this from being possible – through the harmful use of barracks and barges for people seeking safety, instead of homes.

The Bibby Stockholm barge has been the subject of many community and legal challenges (with one High Court decision still pending) as being unsafe and highly inappropriate as a form of asylum accommodation. Even calling it asylum accommodation is misleading – with almost no freedom of movement, the barges and barracks are, to all intents and purposes, detention sites.  

It has been less than a year since people were first moved onto the barge, and yet there has already been tragedy on board.  

We oppose the use of barges and barracks as asylum accommodation, and are appalled that a growing number of young people we have been working with closely in London have been forced onto the Bibby Stockholm barge.

We spoke to one of the young people we supported while they were in London, who is now housed on the Bibby Stockholm:

“At the beginning, when I received the news about coming to Bibby, I was very scared and depressed because I was going to move to a place I didn't know, and I didn't want to lose contact with several friends that I had made over 10 months in London. The routines that I had obtained throughout this time made me feel better and going to a new place made me lose what I had achieved and that I appreciated a lot because at the beginning as an asylum seeker I had thoughts that I was useless for doing nothing. But then I got involved in youth groups, soccer teams, volunteering in cooking and I started studying English, this helped me a lot to strengthen my thoughts and stop thinking that I was useless. Leaving these routines was devastating for me. 

Here I have to start over, there are good people who help us get out of our rooms and I really appreciate their help, but there are days when I feel locked in and don't want to go out since we are only allowed to go out by bus every hour and previously in London I could leave at any time. 

Now I'm trying to get back into a routine that helps me not fall into depression. 

And to always keep in touch with my friends even though it's not the same anymore. 

The crew inside the Bibby is very friendly and the food is very good, I could say better than at the hotel. 

Something that does happen and I do not judge because in the towns the diversity of migrants is not as common as in London, sometimes we are seen as different people and in reality we are just normal people. There are many good people in the town who help us leave our rooms but here I have been seen more times in a different way than in London. 

There are things that I see as secondary but they also make us feel like we are in a prison, it is the high security there is to enter and being in a boat floating in the sea.” 

The government has confirmed it does not intend to use any more barges, a clear indication of how this is a practical policy failure as well as a moral one. The Bibby Stockholm should be closed immediately, and people should be in homes, as our neighbours and community members.