In early June, reports in the Guardian suggested that the Government is considering plans to use a barge to accommodate people seeking asylum at Teesport.
In response, people across Teesside, including local refugee organisations, councillors and residents, have signed a joint public letter to PD Ports, the owner of Teesport, calling on them to take no part in any plans to create a floating prison on the Tees. The full text of the letter and list of signatories is below.
Dear Mr Calje and Mr Hopkinson,
We are writing following recent reports that the Home Office is considering using a barge to accommodate people seeking asylum at Teesport. We urge PD Ports not to take any part in plans to create a floating prison on the Tees, and join the Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council and local MPs in opposing this proposal.
It is imperative that no deal is done to place people seeking asylum in any facility at Teesport. People seeking asylum should be able to live as members of our communities while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim, not warehoused in barges or ships.
Placing hundreds or thousands of people in a vessel at Teesport would cause significant harm to people fleeing war and persecution. Many people may have been forced to make traumatic journeys over sea, and using ships or barges as accommodation risks retraumatising vulnerable people. The use of similar facilities in other countries have resulted in human rights violations and humanitarian crises, with a typhoid outbreak and reports of mistreatment and deaths on ships in the Netherlands.
It is likely that the security measures required by Teesport’s status as a Freeport would severely limit people’s ability to leave the site, meaning people would effectively be detained. Current Government plans to vastly increase the detention of people seeking asylum also mean that it is possible that any vessel used for accommodation in the short-term could formally become a detention facility, in contravention of the UK’s international obligations.
The significant harm caused by segregating people seeking asylum from the community has been well evidenced in reports from current institutional asylum accommodation, and by a wealth of research on detention-like conditions. Asylum accommodation has long been characterised by a lack of local consultation and resourcing, as well as inadequate healthcare and screening for vulnerabilities. People seeking asylum are effectively banned from working, and are kept in limbo for months or even years on minimal levels of asylum support. All too often, people are only able to access the support and services they need via extremely stretched voluntary organisations.
Across Teesside, voluntary services are already stretched to capacity largely thanks to the Government’s extensive mismanagement of the asylum system. It would be impossible to step up the support and services that a barge at Teesport would require. In Birkenhead, Peel Ports have recently refused to further consider similar plans for a barge as they could “not see any conceivable scenario” in which local services would be “able to provide the necessary support”. We urge you to follow suit.
We understand that PD Ports lists respect, consideration and trust among your key values, and we ask that you stand by those principles. Portland Port and Bibby Marine have undermined their stated values by agreeing to allow the Bibby Stockholm to be used to warehouse people seeking refuge in Dorset. We urge you not to make the same mistake, and we call on PD Ports to refuse to enter into any similar agreements at Teesport.
Yours,
Anna Lewis, CEO, Open Door North East
Pat Martin, Chair, Methodist Asylum Project (MAP) Middlesbrough
Satti Collins, Chair, Tees Valley of Sanctuary
Rev Jonathan Edwards, Minister, South Bank Baptist Church
Euphrasia Makaure, CEO, One Community Link
Dr Mohamed Nasreldin, Director, North of England Refugee Service
Jennifer Laws, Campaigns Manager NE, Asylum Matters
Clare Hurst, Deputy Centre Director, North East Law Centre
Barbara Hungin, Chair, Justice First
Duncan McAuley, CEO, Action Foundation
Rachel Wing, Treasurer, Refugee and Asylum Seeker Project Stockton on Tees
Heather Petch OBE, Executive Director, Refugee Futures
Peter J Chapman, Co-ordinator for Refugee and Asylum Seeker Development, Stockton Baptist Church
Bini Araia, Projects Manager, Investing in People and Culture (IPC)
Paul Catterall, Network Development Coordinator, NACCOM
Susan Mansaray, Director, Purple Rose CIC
Emma Howitt, CEO, Middlesbrough and Stockton Mind
Jane Cuthbert, Director, Whippet Up CIC
Pete Widlinski, Chair, Mary Thompson Fund
Christine Eddowes, Chair, Hartlepool Peace and Justice Group
Iain Robertson, Treasurer, North East Coalition for Asylum and Refugee Rights
Phil Muriel, Interpreter, Translator & Trainer, Franca Linguistics
Cllr Alex Brown, Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Adam Brook, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Neil Bendelow, South Bank Ward, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Izzy Attwood, South Bank Ward, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Robert Clark, Teesville Ward, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Lynne Rynn, Coatham Ward, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Luke Myer, Cabinet Member for Children, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council
Cllr Brenda Harrison, Labour Leader and Cllr for De Bruce Ward, Hartlepool Borough Council
Cllr Philippa Storey, Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Education, Middlesbrough Borough Council
Andy McDonald MP
Terence Drainey, Bishop of Middlesbrough
Alan Docherty, Secretary, Darlington TUC
Pat McCourt, Regional Officer, Unite the Union
Fazia Hussain-Brown, Regional Officer, Unite the Union, Middlesbrough
Rachel Tempest, Branch Steward Darlington, Unison
Sol Gamsu, Branch President, Durham University University and Colleges Union
Tony Dowling, NEU delegate, Gateshead TUC
Rosamond Carling, Yarm
Steven Howe, Hartlepool
Anioke Chinedu Michael, Stockton-on-Tees
Bilal, Stockton-on-Tees
Ian Jeffrey, Redcar and Cleveland
Sally Capes, Staithes
Thomas Manning, Member of Tees and Hartlepool Yacht Club, Stockton-on-Tees
Mark Askew, Stockton-on-Tees
Alie Mansaray, Stockton-on-Tees
Ian Holtby, New Marske, Redcar and Cleveland
Yacouba Traore, Middlesbrough
Carolyn Lithgo, Hartlepool
Margaret Nakirembe Kimbugwe, Stockton-on-Tees
Richard Good, Richmond
John Briggs, Guisborough
Graeme Boagey, Middlesbrough
Elizabeth Lithgo, Hartlepool
Ruth Smith, Harrogate
Amy Clifford, Darlington
Olivia Chambers, Cambridge
Veronica Wallace, Fairford
Paul Williams. Local Doctor, Stockton-on-Tees
Wendy Peacock, Stockton-on-Tees
Patricia Jay, York
Chris Peer, West Sussex
Joan Peer
Helen Weir, Great Ayton
Frank Maidens, Saltburn by the Sea
Joanne Mitchell, Guisborough
Alison McManus, Durham
Nicholas, Researcher, Durham University
Michael Adams, Darlington
Jane Wistow, Hartlepool
Helen Charnley, Newcastle
Mwenza Bell, Newcastle
Margaret Hinman, Swainby
Ric Crossman, Associate Professor, Durham University
Dr Stephanie Mulrine, Research Associate, Newcastle University
Sherene Meir, Newcastle
Richard Hawkins, Great Ayton
Stefano Cremonesi, Durham
Catherine Hughes, High Peak Stand Up to Racism
Jackie Fearnley, Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon
Sally Young, Newcastle
Anna Judson, Durham
Martin Jones, Professor of International Human Rights Law, Stanhope
Alan Theasby, former shipyard worker, Middlesbrough
Ann Smith, Coulby Newham
Arash Fataei Bolorchi, Stockton-on-Tees
Marek Olszowski, Middlesbrough
Marijn Nieuwenhuis, Assistant Professor, Durham University
Stephen Nuttall, Brotton
Dr Olena Riabinina, Assistant Professor, Durham University
Geraldine Butterfield, Middlesbrough
Louise Baldock, Stockton-on-Tees
Helen Laws, Hartlepool
Mary Ingram, MAP Volunteer, Middlesbrough
Raha, Volunteer, Middlesbrough
Peter Carr, Teacher, Middlesbrough
Ciarán Carr, Student, Middlesbrough
Ramin Peroznejad, Guisborough
Dr Nicole Renehan, Assistant Professor, Durham
Graham Laws, Member of Tees and Hartlepool Yacht Club, Hartlepool
Anne Bulmer, Eaglescliffe
Kath Sainsbury, Saltburn
Michael Noppen, Hartlepool
Gill Noppen-Spacie, Seaton Carew
Margaret Lally, London
Joy Smith, MAP Volunteer Teacher, Middlesbrough
Kathryn Wilson, MAP Volunteer Teacher, Middlesbrough
Colleau Brigitte, MAP Volunteer, Middlesbrough
Morton Wilson, Middlesbrough
Margaret Humberston, Elder in the United Reformed Church, Hartlepool
Theo Furness, Training Instructor, PD Ports
Brian Glover, Middlesbrough
Eileen Driver, Stokesley
Sara de Jong, Senior Lecturer in Politics, York
Ian Fyfe, Yarm
Teresa Lyth, Justice and Peace Group St Mary’s Cathedral, Middlesbrough
Elizabeth Styan, Ingleby Arncliffe
Paul Humberston, Hartlepool
Catherine Ramos, Director, Justice First
Diane Parker, Redcar
Richard Parker, Redcar
Mandy Penellum, Barrow Trades Union Council, Barrow-in-Furness
Laurence Haley, Middlesbrough
Allison Chisnall, Sunderland
Solafa Eltom, Stockton-on-Tees
Madalena Lemos, Durham
Stephen Robson, Unison Steward, Sunderland
Vicky Holt, Nurse, Eaglescliffe
Michael Shackleton, Manchester
Lauren Blommel, Norton
Sandralucia, GP, Stockton-on-Tees
Geraldine Butterfield, Middlesbrough
Clare Churley, Mickleby
Caleb Day, Wallsend
Dave Heggarty, Stokesley
