![]() “And one of the things that we’re going to ensure with all of these sites is things like doctors facilities they will have on site and so that they can be processed there and looked after on site without the need to impact on local communities.”īut Peter Roper, the mayor of Portland, predicted that housing hundreds of people on the barge would “create a large impact on our existing local services” including the NHS and local policing. ![]() “One of the issues that a lot of people are worried about is what impacts they’ll have on local services,” Holden said. In Portland, an island close to the popular seaside town of Weymouth, Holden suggested the Home Office would try to reduce the need for asylum seekers to leave the port where the barge is moored. While Holden tried to play down the idea people would be detained on the barge – saying “it’s not a type of prison at all” – he said in areas where similar projects were planned people would be able to get off the boat but not leave the port. But he stressed the move was designed to deter more people arriving in small boats across the Channel.Īsked if the first asylum seekers could be moved to the barge in Portland, Dorset, before the summer, he told Sky News “it could even be sooner than that”. In the short term, Holden acknowledged there would be a significant turnover of asylum seekers “moving in and out” as their applications were processed.
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