Latest news with #LeonardFarruku
The Independent
25-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Firm behind Bibby Stockholm to take over running of migrant hotels after contractor replaced
A company running dozens of asylum hotels will have its contract ended by the Home Office and be replaced in part by the firm behind the beleaguered Bibby Stockholm barge. Stay Belvedere Hotels (SBHL) is responsible for running 51 hotels for asylum seekers waiting on their decisions in England and Wales. The company also runs Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, which is due to close and be returned to the Ministry of Defence in September. The Home Office said on Tuesday that it would remove SBHL from government operations following an examination of its contract, which found 'concerns about its performance and behaviour as a government supplier'. The contract, which was awarded in 2019, will end at the earliest opportunity in September 2026. The management of the hotels will be taken over by accommodation providers Mears, Serco and Corporate Travel Management (CTM). CTM is an Australian travel firm that was previously awarded a contract to provide asylum ships and other accommodation, which covered the Bibby Stockholm barge. Labour decided in July last year to close down the Bibby Stockholm and announced it would not renew its contract beyond January 2025 in a push to make savings. The controversial barge, which was based in Portland in Dorset, was used to house asylum seekers from 2023-2024. Asylum seekers had to be temporarily moved off the barge when legionella bacteria was discovered in the water. An asylum seeker, Leonard Farruku, also took his own life on the barge in 2023, and other residents warned the site was unsafe and overcrowded. As of last October, there were 220 asylum hotels in use by the Home Office. Minister for border security and asylum, Angela Eagle, said: "Since July, we have improved contract management and added more oversight of our suppliers of asylum accommodation. "We have made the decision to remove Stay Belvedere Hotels from the Home Office supply chain and will not hesitate to take further action to ensure Home Office contracts deliver for the UK." The Home Office, which is committed to ending the use of asylum hotels, said it was working to "put robust plans in place" to minimise disruption. Speaking to broadcasters on Tuesday morning, housing minister Matthew Pennycook said he would not provide "the specifics" of the Home Office's decision to cancel the company's contract, saying "operational details are being worked out". Asked whether the government would get money back if the company had failed in its duty, he said: "The whole purpose of reviewing asylum contracts is to improve the management of them to guarantee value for money for the taxpayer... the operational details are being worked out. "I'll leave it to Home Office ministers to come back with the finer points of detail on the decision they've made, but work is underway to ensure the asylum services continue to operate as normal, to deal with the management problems." He added: "We did need to review these disastrous contracts on asylum accommodation we inherited. We're doing so to improve management and guarantee value for money for the taxpayer." When pushed on Times Radio, Mr Pennycook said he was unable to give a date for when hotel use for asylum seekers would end. The Home Office has previously said that hotels will be used for at least four more years. Government data from December 2024 shows that there were 38,079 asylum seekers in hotel accommodation, and over 70,000 in other forms of accommodation such as temporary homes or large sites. On their website, SBHL describe themselves as a 'leading provider' of temporary accommodation for asylum seekers. They say staff 'strive every day to ensure each guest is welcomed, supported and serviced in a way that connects them with communities, is sensitive to their culture and delivers an experience that is both compassionate and caring'. A spokesperson for SBHL said: "SBHL has been informed of the decision to end its contract to supply temporary accommodation to asylum seekers in the UK and is in the process of holding discussions with appropriate partners."
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Mass asylum seeker accommodation at Napier barracks to close
Napier barracks, one of the first mass accommodation sites opened to house asylum seekers, is to be closed after years of controversy about conditions there, including a mass Covid outbreak, decrepit facilities and far-right protests. The news is buried in a Home Office document uploaded to parliament's cross-party home affairs committee on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the provision of asylum accommodation. In the document the Home Office states: 'The Home Office intend to occupy and deliver services at Napier until September 2025, at which point the site will be handed back to the Ministry of Defence.' Napier, along with Penally barracks in Pembrokeshire, which was used to house asylum seekers for a few months at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, were opened due to pressures the Home Office was under to provide suitable accommodation for asylum seekers during the pandemic. Napier has capacity for 328 male asylum seekers, who were accommodated in dormitories. There was a mass Covid outbreak in July 2021 with 197 cases identified. A high court ruling in 2021 found that the site did not meet 'minimum standards'. Initially, asylum seekers were accommodated there for an indefinite period but the Home Office subsequently introduced a 90-day limit which the men held there said made their time there more bearable. The use of or plans to use Home Office mass accommodation sites for asylum seekers has been controversial, with proposals to use military bases RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and one at Linton-on-Ouse never getting off the ground. Watchdogs criticised the Home Office for spending millions on the purchase of Northeye in Bexhill, East Sussex. The Bibby Stockholm, where asylum seeker Leonard Farruku died following a suspected suicide and where there was an evacuation after potentially deadly legionella bacteria was found, also attracted controversy and has now closed. Only Wethersfield, a remote military base in Essex continues to operate without a confirmed end date. Three asylum seekers were found to have been accommodated there unlawfully in a high court ruling last week, although the judge found in the Home Office's favour on most of the broader points of the challenge. Emily Soothill of Deighton Pierce Glynn solicitors, who has represented asylum seekers challenging conditions at Napier, said: 'We welcome the news that the government plans to cease using Napier Barracks as asylum accommodation. It is almost four years since the high court found, based on government evidence, that the home secretary had acted unlawfully in accommodating our clients at Napier Barracks, yet it continues to be used to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers. 'People seeking asylum, especially victims of torture and trafficking, are more vulnerable to physical and mental illness. They have the right to be treated with dignity and should not be accommodated en masse in military barracks.' Sally Hough, the director of Napier Drop-In Centre, which provides support and activities for asylum seekers housed at Napier, said: 'Housing vulnerable people in dilapidated former military accommodation scheduled for demolition is wrong and a stain on our record of being a nation of sanctuary. One unintended outcome was how the camp galvanised the local community in support of the residents. 'Mass accommodation sites like Napier Barracks didn't have their intended effect. The camps didn't stop people from wanting to claim asylum in the UK and they didn't succeed in dividing our community. The opening of the camp encouraged people like myself to step up and build a bridge between the camp and the local community, dispel fear and foster integration and understanding.' The Home Office has been approached for comment.
The Independent
14-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Firm behind beleaguered Bibby Stockholm migrant barge handed another £150m government contract
The travel firm behind the controversial Bibby Stockholm migrant barge has been handed another £150m government contract, just months after Labour shut the vessel down following a litany of issues. The barge, which was based in Portland Port in Dorset, was used to house asylum seekers from 2023-2024 and was plagued with problems, including an outbreak of legionnaires disease that forced the temporary evacuation of residents onboard. An asylum seeker, Leonard Farruku, also took his own life on the barge in 2023, and other residents warned the site was unsafe and overcrowded. Corporate Travel Management (CTM), an Australian travel firm which was previously slammed for its handling of Covid quarantine hotels, was given the £1.6bn two-year Bibby contract to provide asylum ships and other accommodation. However, the value will now be significantly less than this, after Labour decided to close down the Bibby Stockholm. Now CTM has been given a further £150m contract to organise government travel services from 2025 to 2028, research company Tussell has found. Tussell estimates that since 2015 CTM has won a total of 143 contracts worth £3.1bn. On its website, CTM describes itself as 'a global provider of innovative and cost-effective travel solutions spanning corporate, events, leisure, loyalty and wholesale travel'. Then-prime minister Rishi Sunak announced plans for two further barges to be purchased to house up to 1,000 migrants in June 2023, but they never materialised and the only barge in use was the Bibby Stockholm. CTM chief executive Jamie Pherous told the Australian Financial Review newspaper in a 2020 interview that the company received Covid-related contracts from the UK government after a person 'close to' then prime minister Boris Johnson called him for help. The first contract involved repatriating UK citizens from abroad. CTM then got involved in providing hotel quarantine services but faced criticism for the high prices. All asylum seekers were moved off the Bibby Stockholm barge by the end of December last year, and it was pictured in January being towed out of Portland Port. Migrants on the barge said they felt like prisoners, were searched every time they went outside, and were unable to see their friends due to the detention-like conditions on the barge. One asylum seeker told researchers last year: 'They search everything - we have to remove belts, caps, jackets, then go through the scanner and luggage would go through the machine. If we have liquids, they check this. I tried to avoid the staff all the time. If they said something rude I kept silent. 'If you do something, they make reports. Because of this, when I was there I didn't go outside of the barge for 14 days, for two weeks. I just stayed in the room, because of the depression. I was so stressed because of my case.'
