A new government in the UK, and a new approach towards immigration is promised.

‌Ali – not his real name – hopes his asylum request with Britain's Home Office in September will mean he'll be allowed to stay in the country legally.

‌For three months he's lived with more than 400 other migrants on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland harbor, near Weymouth on England's south coast.

"I know they're going to interview me by September 9, and it's going to take around two or three hours, as I saw with the other people," he tells CGTN. "And after that, they're gonna tell me that they are accepting me…or there is a need for a second interview."

‌On board the Bibby Stockholm, a barge controversially contracted by the UK's previous Conservative government, hundreds of migrants who've arrived in the UK illegally or seeking sanctuary, live in cramped conditions. 

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Ali shares his cabin with another migrant, in a space too small to swing a cat. Food and bus transport between Portland and Weymouth breaks the daily boredom of having nothing to do - and long days to pass the time.

"It feels just like prison, because 24 hours a day, seven days a week there are guards behind that door." he says. "And you cannot pass that gate without the bus. If there isn't a bus for taking you to Weymouth or Portland, you cannot leave that barge."

‌Before being moved to the Isle of Portland's naval base, Ali spent seven months in a large Holiday Inn hotel near Wembley, north London.

‌"In hotels you have freedom," he says. "You can go outside anytime you want. You can get to know people. You can go for a walk. You can go for a ride on a bicycle. You can do so many things. In here… no. If there is rain, that's it. You can just sit in the barge."

 

A‌ complicated back story

The Bibby Stockholm has had a complicated life. Converted into accommodation in 1992, the engineless barge – between contracts, it is towed into position – has housed the homeless and asylum seekers in Germany and the Netherlands, plus construction workers in Scotland and Sweden, before becoming better known when the Conservative government sought an alternative to hotel accommodation for asylum seekers.

Various controversies ensued. Local authorities explored legal action to block its usage in Portland harbor; the discovery of legionella bacteria prompted an evacuation; and the Fire Brigades Union asked how a barge retrofitted to accommodate 222 could be safe for the 500 the government intended to house there. 

Some have lived there for up to nine months. There are some facilities on the spartan craft – a games room, a few computers – but WiFi service, says Ali, is patchy.

‌Several volunteer groups in Portland are helping migrants with language lessons, classes in mathematics, walks and volunteer work and art classes. Rocca Holly-Nambi, a director of Portland's B-side arts festival, has been delighted by the response.

"There's been this amazing response from the Portland community to offer guys on the Bibby – our new friends, our new residents – all sorts of activities," she says, insisting that the benefit flows both ways: "the activities haven't just been for guys on the Bibby, they've been for the entire community on Portland.

"I think that's a really powerful thing about art. And then the other thing is it doesn't always rely on language, right? It's a different type of language. So suddenly you're drawing some bonkers abstract painting, someone from somewhere completely different recognizes a symbol, and it sparks something in them."

‌

The hot-button issue

Journalists aren't allowed into the port or allowed to meet migrants onboard the barge. CGTN met Ali in Weymouth, but he's aware how integrating with local people can be difficult. The perception about immigrants in Britain has been under scrutiny for decades.

Ipsos and YouGov opinion polls released in mid-August showed that immigration has once again become the most important issue to the electorate – higher than healthcare, the economy and crime. 

Those polls were conducted after a week of riots and disturbances in more than 30 towns and cities across England. Weymouth and Portland weren't affected – but Holly-Nambi says that there has been poor communication to locals around the Bibby Stockholm.

‌"The way that this whole situation has happened on Portland was really difficult," she says. "The local community didn't get any communications, they didn't have enough respect to be really heard.

"A lot of people were really happy to welcome people, but there were genuine concerns about resources, about how it might work – and there was a lack of communication. And then that leads to anxiety, which can lead to anger. It's like the perfect storm."

The UK's contract to use the Bibby Stockholm comes to an end on January 8, 2025, and the new Labour government has said it will not seek a renewal. It has, however, pledged to deport thousands more migrants and people who fail in their asylum applications.

In August, the UK's interior ministry said it intends to improve asylum applications, but also deport up to 14,000 people – the highest number since 2018.

Angela Eagle, the UK's Minister for Border Security and Asylum, 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," and pledged to "start clearing the asylum backlog and making savings on accommodation which is running up vast bills for the taxpayer."

‌Those savings are claimed to be about $10 billion, but behind the bills and savings are human stories. ‌

It's almost a year since Ali's family paid smugglers to facilitate his escape. Each day, he patiently bides his time, as he waits for his Home Office interview. If he's successful he'll be able to stay in the UK. If not, his future looks bleak. 

"If I go back to Iran, they're just going to hang me," he says matter of factly.

"I cannot go back. If they don't accept me, I cannot stay here, I don't know what will happen to me."

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