The futures of other ex-military bases earmarked to house hundreds of migrants are uncertain after the Government confirmed it is ending the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge. A contract for the 500-capacity barge moored in Dorse t , which has been beset by problems since it was commissioned in April 2023, will not be renewed once it expires in January. Decisions on other ex-RAF sites at Wethersfield in Essex and Scampton in Lincolnshire are due to be made by the Home Secretary in due course, i understands.
However, no timescale has been given as to when confirmation will be provided on plans for housing asylum seekers at the bases, which local campaigners and politicians want scrapped. Last year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Scampton would be shut “as quickly as possible” by a new Labour government. Just before the election, he said Wethersfield “needs to close”, but added: “Obviously that’ll take time, because the problem that we’ve got at the moment is we’ve got tens of thousands of asylum seekers whose claims are not being processed.
” Around 500 men are on the Wethersfield site in ex-home secretary James Cleverly’s constituency, while nobody has yet been moved into Scampton, once home to the Red Arrows and the Dambusters. It comes as the High Court heard asylum seekers housed at the “prison-like” former RAF Wethersfield base had to queue for food and experienced scabies outbreaks. Andrew Hull, chairman of campaign group the Wethersfield Airb.