Traces of legionella on board Bibby Stockholm, the barge-beehive moored for a few days off the coast of Portlandin Dorset (southern England) to provide accommodation at sea, in a state of semi-confinement, up to 500 adult men. The 39 individuals painstakingly embarked so far amidst the protests, starting on August 7, were then evacuated following the discovery of the highly contagious legionnaire’s syndrome bacterium (or legionellosis) between the cabin pipes. The Interior Ministry, headed by Suella Bravermanfalco anti-immigration tried to downplay it as one “temporary” measure underlining that at the moment none of the 39 migrants are manifest “symptoms of contagion”. While you specified that no one will return on board before a general sanitization and “certain guarantees”. In any case, the repercussions appear heavy for the government, after weeks of reassurances in response to the controversies raised on the initiative (and on the connected risks: health, public order or fire risk, as well as ethical) by international organizations, humanitarian associations , opposition parties, firefighters, various specialists and by many citizens of Portland.
The latest checks had been arranged on board before the embarkation operation started, but the positive outcome has only now arrived. No one has been able to explain why the report was not expected. Especially now there are also fears for the local population: exposed to marginal risks, according to experts, but still inevitably anxiousgiven that – according to the Bbc – The UK Health and Security Agency has now recommended a series of further tests on the hypothetical presence of infectious agents.
“This is just another example of the facilitation and the incompetence with which our government has implemented its project from start to finish”, thundered among others the activist Alex Bailey, animator of Say No To The Bargea cartel of pro-migrant groups and civic committees engaged in protests against the docking of the “barge camp”, as some have come to rename it. A flop that adds to the stalemate – due to legal appeals at the European Court of Human Rights – of the even more criticized Rwanda plan: conceived by the duo Altar-Braverman (premier and minister both sons of Indian immigrants) to transfer for a fee, and for dissuasive purposes, to the African country other contingents of asylum seekers. While arousing a mixture of indignation and skepticism is the latest reserve hypothesis according to which the executive is now considering deport quotas of “illegals” to remote Ascension Islanda territory of the British crown lost in the Atlantic.