Council attacks Home Office plan to hold refugees on boat

Ministers are planning to house 500 asylum-seekers on a converted "hotel ship" moored in one of Britain's busiest container ports, a local authority claimed yesterday.

Thurrock Council in Essex said it had been "made aware" of the proposal to use the ship Bibby Progress as part of a plan by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, to accommodate refugees and their families.

The leader of the council, Andy Smith, said they had been told the ship would be moored in Tilbury port. He voiced "strong opposition" to the plan, adding: "We're doubtful we could cope with the impact of a large number of refugee families in one area who may require a range of support services."

In May, the Home Office announced the first three sites for asylum accommodation centres in rural Britain. Two local authorities refused planning permission for the 750-bed centres at Bicester in Oxfordshire and RAF Newton in Nottinghamshire. The Home Office is contesting the objections.

The Bibby Progress was mooted as an asylum centre for the Mersey estuary three years ago. In 1993, the Government earmarked it as a future prison ship to ease jail overcrowding. The Home Office would not confirm its interest in the shipyesterday. A spokeswoman said: "It's prudent to consider all of the options but we will not comment on the specifics until we consider it feasible and likely that we will progress with it."

But Mr Smith said the council had found out about the proposals. "We're strongly opposed to [it] principally because of concern for the needs of vulnerable asylum-seekers," he said.

"As I understand the proposal, the refugees would be able to come back and forth from the ship and this has implications for people who would have no knowledge of the area, may lack language skills and have not been able to form relationships with the local community."

The chief executive of the Refugee Council, Nick Hardwick, said "tough" policies were not the answer. "In 1987 boats were used to detain Tamil asylum-seekers," he said. "The lessons from that came in the great storm of 1987 when the boats blew away and it was only by the greatest good fortune that there wasn't a terrible tragedy.