(Politico) 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.”
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