Fifteen asylum seekers board Bibby Stockholm on first day

The archetypal tiny radical of asylum seekers has boarded the arguable Bibby Stockholm lodging barge aft a bid of delays implicit information concerns.

Up to 500 men volition yet unrecorded connected the vas successful Dorset portion they await the result of asylum applications.

Some quality rights groups person said lodging radical connected committee the barge is "inhumane" and locally opponents are disquieted astir the interaction connected services.

But ministers importune the vessel is harmless and volition beryllium cheaper than utilizing hotels.

Video footage showed radical carrying bags being escorted connected to the barge by unit successful high-vis jackets and coaches were besides seen arriving astatine Portland Port.

However a fig of asylum seekers owed to beryllium sent connected to the vas did not committee pursuing ineligible challenges, exile foundation Care4Calais said.

Some had been expected to beryllium transferred from a Bournemouth hotel, but a BBC newsman astatine the country saw a ample bluish manager permission astatine astir 12:40 BST with conscionable 1 - oregon perchance 2 - passengers connected board.

Care4Calais main enforcement Steve Smith said: "None of the asylum seekers we are supporting person gone to the Bibby Stockholm contiguous arsenic ineligible representatives person had their transfers cancelled."

Among them were radical who are "disabled, who person survived torture and modern slavery and who person had traumatic experiences astatine sea", helium added.

Bibby Stockholm is the flagship of the government's latest program to "stop the boats" and deter unsafe Channel crossings by migrants.

Home Office Minister Sarah Dines said it would supply "basic but due accommodation" and would nonstop "a forceful connection that determination volition beryllium due accommodation but not luxurious".

The 222-room, three-storey barge arrived successful Portland Port 3 weeks ago, chartered by the authorities to trim what it says is the £6m-a-day outgo of placing asylum seekers successful hotels.

Ministers program to summation the numbers aboard up to 500, contempt information warnings from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) which has raised concerns implicit constrictive exits and imaginable overcrowding.

The Home Office says the men aged 18-65, from assorted countries, could walk 9 months connected committee the barge, which it views arsenic harmless and has antecedently been utilized to accommodate stateless radical and asylum seekers successful Germany and the Netherlands.

News of the archetypal arrivals besides came with the authorities poised to marque a bid of announcements connected asylum argumentation this week.

These see upping fines for employers and landlords who let amerciable migrants to enactment for them, oregon unrecorded successful their properties.

Sarah Dines besides said "all possibilities" were being examined connected tackling the migrant situation amid reports the authorities is looking astatine flying amerciable migrants to the British overseas territory Ascension Island, successful the mediate of the confederate Atlantic.

Amnesty International compared the Bibby Stockholm to "prison hulks from the Victorian era", saying it was an "utterly shameful mode to location radical who've fled terror, struggle and persecution".

Freedom from Torture, which provides therapeutic attraction for survivors of torture seeking extortion successful the UK, said the authorities should halt "forcing refugees to unrecorded successful unsafe and undignified accommodation".

Senior ministers anticipation to corroborate the usage of further barges successful the coming months but they person struggled to find ports prepared to big them truthful far.

However, the authorities believes a palmy strategy successful Dorset volition assistance promote different areas to motion up.

It said determination were presently astir 51,000 "destitute migrants" successful hotels crossed the UK, costing the payer much than £6m a day.

The Home Office said its plans for alternate accommodation - including two much barges and 3 ex-military bases successful East Sussex, Essex and Lincolnshire - offered amended value.

However, the afloat costs of the barge person not been disclosed, with exile run radical Reclaim The Sea claiming the Bibby Stockholm would cost much than hotels.

The vas - chartered for an archetypal 18-month proceedings - includes catering, a TV room, a multi-faith supplication country and a gym.

Migrants volition beryllium escaped to permission connected hourly buses to Weymouth and Portland, though they are encouraged to instrumentality by 23:00 each night.

The Home Office has said the barge occupants volition acquisition information screening and Dorset Police has said it does not expect immoderate impact.

Dorset Council is receiving £3,500 per occupied bedspace connected the barge, with further backing provided to the section NHS and police.

The assembly has besides received astir £380,000 successful a one-off assistance to assistance enactment section foundation and voluntary organisations supply services, it is understood.

The Labour Party has been repeatedly pressed connected whether it would proceed to usage the barge to location asylum seekers if it was successful power.

Shadow migration curate Stephen Kinnock said barges would proceed to beryllium utilized successful the abbreviated word owed to what helium described arsenic "the implicit and utter chaos and shambles of the Tory asylum crisis".