Wirral Council says it has a 'wide range of concerns' about plans to house as many as 1,800 asylum seekers on a vessel in the River Mersey.
The ECHO revealed this weekend that the government is considering housing a large number of asylum seekers on a boat close to the Wirral Waters regeneration project in Birkenhead. Peel Ports, which owns the waterways and port infrastructure, has said it would only go ahead with the plans with the full engagement of the local council.
In its first comments on the hugely controversial plans, Wirral Council said it only learned of the proposals late on Friday following a call with the home office.
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Director of Regeneration and Place David Hughes said: "We have not otherwise been formally notified or briefed and have received very few details."
He added: “Wirral is a welcoming place with a compassionate community that has a track record of supporting anyone forced to flee their homelands due to conflict. However, we are currently in the process of writing to the Home Office setting out a wide range of questions, concerns and challenges the borough would face should an operation of this nature and sheer scale be progressed in Wirral.”
Council bosses are not the only ones with major concerns about the proposals. Members of Parliament in the area have vowed to fight the plans for what they have labelled a 'floating prison.'
In a joint statement, Mick Whitley, Angela Eagle, and Margaret Greenwood, the MPs for Birkenhead, Wallasey and Wirral West, said: “We owe a duty of care towards those who come to the UK fleeing conflict and persecution.
"Instead, this government is abandoning its responsibilities to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people claiming asylum in the UK. Government policy is now being driven by a sense of wanton cruelty without any intention of trying to secure positive outcomes for those involved.”
The MPs expressed concern that the vessel would be located in an area of the borough without adequate transport links and that the refugees would therefore be “stranded on what amounts to a prison ship”. They also warned that local services, including healthcare, would not be readily accessible to refugees with complex needs.
They have pledged to “fight these inhumane plans all the way” and are now demanding a meeting with Home Office Ministers.
Speaking about the plans, Clare Mosley, the founder of the national Care4Calais charity, who also lives in Wirral, said: "It has been encouraging and heart-warming to see the response of the local community to asylum seekers in Wallasey and Hoylake. We know the Wirral is a tolerant and welcoming place.
"However placing a high number of people in confined housing on our shores will place a strain on the local community and on local services. This type of accommodation does not give asylum seekers access to the community support that they need.
"Both the cost and the harm is entirely unnecessary. If the government simply processed people’s asylum claims they could work, contribute to society and would not need to cost taxpayers a penny."
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.
“We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6 million a day.
“We have to use alternative accommodation options, as our European neighbours are doing – including the use of barges and ferries to save the British taxpayer money and to prevent the UK becoming a magnet for asylum shoppers in Europe.”
A spokesperson for Peel Ports said: “We have provided a berth for a vessel accommodating refugees in Glasgow for the last year and this has worked well thanks to the willing participation of the local authority and their collaboration with the vessel’s management team and the port operations.
"We have similar port infrastructure available in Birkenhead that can be provided for the same purpose. We have been clear throughout discussions that this model can only work successfully with the full engagement and support of the local authority and other relevant stakeholders."
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