Asylum seekers' barge to close, UK
The new UK government said it would stop using a barge
to house asylum seekers.
This raises two big questions which I do not recall much writing about.
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Why the UK's handling of asylum requests takes years.
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Why the barge was such a bad place for asylum seekers to live in.
For (1), I suspect the causes include the Tories' desire to discourage people from seeking
asylum in the UK, budget cuts that affect bureaucracy, computerization that replaces human
workers, and an attitude of rigidity among functionaries that leads to delay whenever they
encounter an unusual situation that the rules don't explicitly address.
For (2) I have seen little concrete coverage of what makes it so bad to live there. There may
be aspects of its arrangements and policies that make life on board painful, but I have no idea
what they are.
The one thing I do understand is the barge's remote location and consequent inconvenience of
access. I think that makes it unfeasible for anyone living there to visit most parts of the UK
without staying away overnight — and they can't afford to rent a room for that. I think that
would in most cases cut them off from meeting friends, relatives and support organizations.
If that is the main problem, could it be solved by mooring the barge in London, convenient to
public transit?
If there are other major problems of living there, I would like to understand them.