AYS News Digest 21/07/23: The UK’s recycled detention barge with its roots in slavery
Sea arrivals and rescues // New investigation into actual identities of Pylos smugglers //Single mothers at risk in Greece // Human rights defender acquitted // Reclaim the Sea activist arrested // Worth reading and more…
FEATURE: The UK’s recycled detention barge with its roots in slavery
The Bibby Stockholm, the UK’s new ‘housing solution’ for people on the move, and the company that owns it is has a long and distressingly appropriate history with a clear and direct line to contemporary politics and asylum rhetoric.
This week journalists were invited aboard the vessel to view the ‘refurbishment’. Some were surprised by the size of the restaurant and the fact it employed 28 people. I’m guessing they had never worked in catering before. It is planned that 500 people will be forced to live aboard. In its last life, as housing for workers, the Bibby Stockholm only had space for 222 people, but the Home Office have solved this problem by installing bunkbeds. It also had working TVs, a restaurant, a bar, gym and other leisure activities which have now largely been dismantled.
The many lives of Bibby Stockholm
People are due to be moved on to the ship, docked at Portland Port, later this month, but this is not the first time it has been used to house asylum seekers. During the 2000s it was based in the Netherlands as an immigration detention boat.
According to Statewatch, on the night of 2 to 3 February 2008, an Algerian man, Rachid Abdelsalam, died on the Bibby Stockholm in Rotterdam of heart failure. His heart irregularities were apparently treated with cough medicine and his fellow detainees claim that although they warned the guards of Rachid’s deteriorating health, only two hours after he had died did the guards open his cell door.
An undercover investigation at the time revealed high rates of death by suicide, self-harm and prison-like conditions, with detainees only allowed to go on deck for one hour a day.
In an Amnesty report from 2008, when barges were still in use, which focuses on detention in the Netherlands, they state:
Detention of migrants and asylum seekers will only be lawful when the authorities can demonstrate in each individual case that it is necessary and proportionate to the objective to be achieved, that alternatives will not be effective, that it is on grounds prescribed by law, and when there is an objective risk of the person absconding. In any detention case, including for the purpose of expulsion or to prevent illegal entry, the individuals concerned should be provided with an effective opportunity to challenge the decision to detain them. In every case, detention should always be for the shortest possible time and must not be prolonged or indefinite.
In the original fact sheet from the UK Government it was stated that people will be forced to stay on the boat for three to six months on a case by case basis and that the contract is for 18 months.
The company
The company was originally founded by John Bibby Senior in 1807 (as John Bibby & Co.) and despite the fact that slavery was abolished that same year, company records show that John Bibby profited from three slave voyages and used enslaved labour on board the company’s ships. The company also profited from transporting the British Army around the Empire.
The money
The British public were assured that this project will cost less than housing people in hotels, a statement recently brought into doubt by a joint report and several articles. On 17th June, the Independent revealed that the Australian firm Corporate Travel Management (CTM) is to be paid £1.6bn over two years to manage the mass-containment of asylum-seekers on an unknown number of vessels, including the Bibby Stockholm and an unknown number of hotels. The deal could be extended beyond 2025. Government contracts first fell to CTM during COVID.
It now seems likely that the greatest possible saving, in any event very unlikely, will be ten pounds per person per day. While the workers in the UK are being sold lies about where their tax money is going, however, Bibby Maritime Ltd has other options.
Barbados
The British Government clearly has a long standing relationship with the company which has been lovingly maintained through recent years. The Bibby Stockholm and other Bibby Maritime Ltd ships are registered to Barbados, a tax haven.
BLG does not engage in aggressive or abusive tax avoidance but recognises the obligation to its shareholders to structure its affairs in an efficient manner and therefore we will consider the tax consequences of transactions as a factor in the planning process. — Bibby Group Tax Strategy
Which means it does utilize tax havens.
The Bibby Kalmar
When the Bibby Stockholm’s sister ship was docked in Hamburg in the mid-1990’s to house men, women and children fleeing wars in Yugoslavia and other countries, it was described as dirty, dangerous and unsafe for children. Frank Eyssen, the head of a refugee advocacy group, stated that it was “a part of a deliberate political agenda that tells refugees as soon as they get here that they are not welcome”. Over 30 years later, nothing has changed, apart from that in the 1990s the TVs were allowed to stay on.
The real human cost
All forms of detention have for years been documented as having negative impacts on people’s mental and physical wellbeing. This very ship has been documented as leading to mental health crises resulting in death.
At this particular moment in time, the journeys people have been forced to take will also inform their response to being made to live at sea:
Open water can be retraumatising for people who have experienced dangerous and even deadly crossings such as the Mediterranean and the Channel. In some cases, they will have witnessed others going overboard, drowning, or dying in other ways. — Reclaim the Sea
The first floating detention center in the UK, the Earl William, was used in 1987 and held Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka as well as people from Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Uganda, the Seychelles and Nigeria. It was moored off Harwich in Essex. It was a time of heightened racialized and anti-immigrant rhetoric in the UK (sound familiar?) especially from the then home secretary, Leon Brittan. The vessel became a human rights disaster with enforced curfews, high risk of suicide and hunger strikes.
The hunger strikers’ banner read:
British people! Don’t let us die.
SEA
Arrivals in the Aegean
Seventy people were transferred to Kos on the 21st as their boat broke down near Karpathos. A further 29 people arrived directly on the island on the 20th, and 28 people were transferred from Pserimos to Leros on the same day.
Thirteen people arrived on Lesvos on the 21st, including a pregnant woman. They originally hid in the woods to avoid pushback.
Arrivals in Italy
Dozens of rescued boats have have arrived on Lampedusa between the 20th and 21st with almost 2000 people. Most travelers were from sub-Saharan countries, the Horn of Africa and Tunisia.
Sea rescues
#LifeSupportSAR has rescued 184 people in four rescues in international waters. Among them are 26 women (two of whom are pregnant) and 56 children. Thirteen rescued people have disembarked at Lampedusa to keep Life Support within capacity; the rest will disembark at the port of Taranto.
GREECE
New investigation into the actual identities of the Pylos smugglers
Very soon after the Pylos shipwreck, nine people from Egypt were arrested on charges relating to smuggling. This week, Lighthouse Reports instead reveals that General Khalifa Haftar, with whom the EU has partnered to curb migration, and his son, are far more likely to be responsible.
It is known by EU authorities that Eastern Libyan militias answering to Haftar carry out both pullback and smuggling operations. The IOM and the UNHCR briefed EU officials on an increase in departures from eastern Libya, describing them as a “lucrative source of income for the eastern Libyan rulers involved”.
In spite of this, Italy and Malta are making deals with Haftar to prevent migration.
Single mothers at risk in Greece
While in Greece, a refugee single mother needs to be the lawyer and breadwinner of her family, and, at the same time, be a mother, while we are familiar with neither the language nor the law. Can you imagine doing that with all the bad memories coming after you every night? — Marzia* (38)
Refugee Support Aegean are highlighting the situation for Afghan single mothers in Greece, having begun the representation of six people in both the closed controlled access centers on the islands and on the mainland.
Delays in being able to register their asylum claims have affected their ability to access state financial support for themselves and their children. Other difficulties they face include being able to access services or travel to an urban centre while their children are in school. Transport costs are also not covered by the state and thus accessing legal or psychological support can be difficult if not impossible, but they try to remain strong.
I have to be twice as strong for my children, but I often feel broken. Even though it is very hard to be a single mother, the hardships we have been through during our journey towards Greece but also since we arrived here, have taught me that I have the power to overcome the worst obstacles and to protect my children. When I look back at what we’ve been through, I think ‘wow, we managed it, we survived’ and I feel a little bit proud. — Parvin* (29)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Human rights defender acquitted
Petar Rosandić is a human rights defender and founder of the organisation SOS Balkanroute. On 18 July 2023, the Vienna Commercial Court judge dismissed the lawsuit brought against him by the Centre for Migration Policy Development. The Centre had accused SOS Balkanroute and its founder of damaging their reputation. The judge stated that the statements of the refugee rights organisation and the human rights defender fall under the scope of freedom of expression which is protected by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
UK
Reclaim the Sea activist arrested
On18th July, Tigs Louis-Puttick—founder of the migrant rights organisation Reclaim The Sea—was arrested for peacefully protesting the illegal Immigration Bill and held until the early hours of the morning.
This incident demonstrates not only how far refugee rights have been eroded in the UK — with the Immigration Bill in question being one of the most anti-refugee pieces of legislation in this country’s history — but also how the right to protest is under attack. — Tigs Louis-Puttick
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and many NGOs, charities, human rights groups and individuals have strongly criticized the bill that was passed early this month.
Vulnerable people could be exposed to further harm and risks, including exploitation, trafficking including for purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation, arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The new policy is likely to fuel hostility, xenophobia and discrimination against migrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees. — OHCHR
Afghan families face homelessness
The Home Office have sent out eviction notices to Afghan families that came to the UK after the Taliban takeover/US withdrawal and are still housed in hotels. The Government say there is no reason for them to become homeless, as most have leave to remain and the right to work. However, the lack of affordable housing in the UK has led many to disagree.
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