The Bibby Stockholm barge is set to be scrapped as migrant accommodation under Labour’s asylum system overhaul.
The contract for the vessel, moored in Portland Port, Dorset, will not be renewed and will end in January, the Home Office announced on Tuesday.
Ending its use forms part of the “expected £7.7 billion of savings in asylum costs over the next ten years” the Government added.
Some 400 migrants are currently living on the barge. But the Home Office insists it will no longer be needed as it moves to clear the asylum claims backlog.
The Bibby Stockholm is one of three major asylum accommodation sites set up under the previous Conservative Government to try to reduce the huge cost of housing people in hotels.
It was controversially commissioned in April last year to be used for 18 months. However the first migrants to board were delayed until August following multiple complications with the scheme.
Some 20 asylum seekers had to be evacuated after legionella bacteria was discovered on the barge just days after they moved in.
It led to a major clean up operation before they were returned in late October. In December, a person placed on the vessel took their own life.
Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, said: “We are determined to restore order to the asylum system, so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced.
“The Home Secretary has set out plans to start clearing the asylum backlog and making savings on accommodation which is running up vast bills for the taxpayer.
“The Bibby Stockholm will continue to be in use until the contract expires in January 2025.”
Two other migrant accommodation sites - RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and RAF Wethersfield in Essex - are also expected to be closed down after being underused.
She branded the huge cost under the previous Conservative government the “most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen”.
Ms Cooper also claimed that the Tory Rwanda policy could have cost £10 billion in total.
