Protestors to gather on Portland over barge concerns

As part of a "family-friendly" static protest, residents will gather at 12.00 pm on June 3 at the Gateway Pillars near Victoria Square roundabout on Portland to show their objections to the plans by the Home Office on Portland Port.

The Bibby Stockholm barge is set to arrive at Portland Port in June with the first 50 asylum seekers scheduled to arrive shortly after.

Fliers for the protest have been seen across Portland displaying the message "The people of Dorset say NO to the Barge".

The protest has been organised by local residents who are members of a Facebook group called "Portland Immigration Barge Discussions" who have voiced their anger at Portland being chosen as the place to host the asylum seekers, with local councillors, police and MPs not involved as part of the discussions.

The group has also set up a petition against the plans which has received over 2,000 signatures.

Portland resident Stephen Coggins is part of the group which has been organising the protest. 

He said: "A group of residents found out that Portland Town Council was consulting in a meeting if the barge required Planning permission to hold 500 people at the Portland port.

We are getting so many messages about the Static Protest meeting at Victoria Roundabout, Portland very close to where 500 single men will be allowed to roam the area."

The protest follows a demonstration against the barge hosted by stand Up to Racism Dorset, who argued that the "prison barge" was inhumane to host refugees."

Local resident and campaigner Julie Croley is part of the group and has helped organise the protest on Portland.

Resident Julie Croley has voiced her concerns about the plans to house asylum seekers on Portland

She said: "I have put myself out there, a lot of people are beginning to realise this is close to happening.

"My reasons for protesting are that it is not good for tourism, families are going to stay away from visiting and that affects a lot of people.

"The Government is telling us they are trying to empty hotels to accommodate asylum seekers in these sites like barges but these are in fact extra sites on top of hotels and not instead of hotels.

"There is a simple way to sort this out, the government needs more processing officers.

"They could hire people in recruitment to help process the asylum claims, there are so many people in recruitment who could do that job.

"It is a simple process that a lot of people working in recruitment could do.

"They need to do that to clear the backlogs. It is not rocket science."

"My campaign is not about race creed or colour. We do not know where they will be from so I strongly refute and accusations of Racism."

Portland Mayor Councillor Carralyn Parkes said: "As a council, we do not want to demonise people coming here on the barge, we will treat them with respect.

"There is a lot of hate speech directed towards the people who will be coming here, any kind of hate speech is worrying, big or small. 

"We need calm heads and kind hearts.

"But for everyone who is saying that this is the wrong place to house asylum seekers we are in complete agreement, we just do not have the infrastructure."