‘PRIOR to the Grenfell Tower fire, many concerns were being raised by many groups, including the Fire Brigades Union, about fires in high-rise buildings. Those concerns were largely ignored and it saw the loss of 72 innocent lives.’
Ben Selby, Deputy General Secretary of the FBU, was yesterday condemning the Tory intention to incarcerate hundreds of refugees aboard the hulk Bibby Stockholm off Portland on the Weymouth coast in Dorset.
‘We don’t want to be in that case right now,’ he continued. ‘We feel that we are looking down the barrel of another possible disaster. We believe it to be a death trap and we believe it’s another accident waiting to happen.
‘We make no apologies for making our concerns known. We are going to write to the Home Office today to set out our concerns.’
The FBU warning was water off a duck’s back to Tory Secretary of State for Energy, Security and Net Zero, Grant Shapps.
‘It certainly won’t be a death trap,’ snapped Shapps. ‘This actual ship was previously used by Germany to house migrants, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be absolutely safe.
‘Ships are used to transport people all the time and there’s no inherent reason why that would be the case. That’s actually why these final safety checks are being carried out.’
It was the the same for prime minister Rishi Sunak, who appeared on LBC radio yesterday morning, to say: ‘This is an example of me doing something different that hasn’t been tried before to help solve a serious problem. There is a barge here. People are going to be put on it.’
Enver Solomon, chief Executive of the Refugee Council, condemned the Tory plan, saying: ‘The reason the government is having to use this barge – and it is absolutely the wrong plan in the wrong place – is because it has grossly mismanaged the asylum system.
‘There is a backlog of 150,000 cases and if there wasn’t that backlog the government wouldn’t have to use ships.’
Carralyn Parkes, the mayor of Portland, said: ‘The Home Office has been inconsistent and opaque in their decision making and their attempt to rush through the barge without proper consultation and consideration, which was always going to create problems.’
‘The Bibby Stockholm is not a suitable place to house asylum seekers. It is still not too late to stop this. Human beings belong in communities.’
