'Floating prison' boarding time

Britain has began housing migrants on board a barge docked off the southwest English coast, in its latest controversial immigration policy that has drawn heavy criticism from locals and rights campaigners.

The Bibby Stockholm, which has been moored for weeks in Portland on the Dorset coastline, has accepted the first of up to 500 young male inhabitants due to stay there.

But the decision to dock the vessel in Portland, a small island with a population of about 13,600 people, has prompted a backlash with the argument that the area is ill-suited to the task. Rights advocates have also hit out at the policy, with protesters showing up at the waterfront site in recent weeks.

Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK branded the barge "a shameful way to house people who've fled terror, conflict and persecution."

It was previously used by Germany and the Netherlands to house homeless people and asylum-seekers, but opponents in Britain have noted it was previously described as an "oppressive environment."

A number of migrants did not board the barge after legal moves.

"None of the asylum-seekers we are supporting have gone to the barge today," said Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais. "To house any human being in a 'quasi floating prison' is inhumane and cruel."

The firefighters' union has also expressed concern, but officials have said the policy passed all necessary checks.

Britain's asylum system backlog had ballooned to more than 130,000 by the end of March. The bill to house those applicants and other migrant arrivals has spiraled to more than 6 million (HK$59.6 million) a day, according to officials, as they resort to using hotels and other temporary accommodation.

"The government thinks it is right to find alternatives that are cheaper and more cost effective," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman said on the matter.

Sunak's government is also seeking to deter migrants through a new "illegal migration" law, enacted last month, which bars asylum claims by all arrivals via the Channel and other "illegal" routes. It also mandates their transfer to third countries, such as Rwanda.

But both policies are on-hold amid a court challenge over the legality of sending migrants to east Africa.