UK 'floating prison' evacuated due to Legionella outbreak

Migrants detained this week on the huge barge that the British government has set up as a floating detention center in Dorset County have had to be evacuated after legionella bacteria were found in the water.

About fifty migrants had begun arriving on the barge, a large structure with a capacity for 500 people, earlier this week in a move criticized by both the Labor opposition and NGOs as an inhumane decision and an act of deliberate confinement.

The migrants have been moved out of the structure as a precautionary measure and right now there have been no cases of disease among the occupants of the 'Bibby Stockholm', as confirmed by a spokesman for the Interior to the British chain Sky News.

The chain, citing its own sources, points out in particular that the Government ordered a routine test of the water supply on July 25 but the results did not arrive until August 7, when the migrants had begun to be embarked.

Now, “environmental samples from the water system of the 'Bibby Stockholm' barge have shown levels of legionella bacteria that require further investigation,” according to the Interior spokesman.

Based on these initial results, however, the Home Office, in collaboration with the country's Health Security Agency, the UKHSA, have decided to undertake this procedure under the supervision of Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick.