If Labour sees an election victory, problematic barges and military installations will still be used to temporarily keep asylum seekers, according to a member of Keir Starmer's frontbench.

Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, expressed he was "deeply unhappy" at the proposal since it was the last thing the party intended, explaining that Labour will have "no choice but to deal with the mess we inherit."

Speaking to Sky News Sunday, Kinnock expressed that “Over the last 13 years, the Tory government has destroyed our asylum system. We’ll inherit a mess if we are privileged to win the next election.”

When forced to respond about the barges, he stated, “The reality is, on day one we will have to deal with the mess we have and the shambolic mess they have left us. We’ll be left with no choice but to deal with the mess we inherit.”

He explained to BBC Breakfast that a Labour administration would be able to clear the backlog in six months.

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The shadow minister declined to specify a timetable for when a Labour administration would stop utilizing the barges and reduce the backlog, which had reached a record level of over 172,000 cases.

Kinnock's remarks came as the deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said checks on a contentious barge built to accommodate asylum seekers, the Bibby Stockholm, was still underway, with the first group expected to be lodged there within "weeks."

Howls of outrage

The barge, in Portland, Dorset, would be ready for use soon, as the government was only checking fire safety issues.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Dowden told people to stop “howls of outrage” against the barge.

The current administration plans to implement a slew of immigration regulations this week in an effort to demonstrate to the prime minister that he is making progress on one of his five core goals, "stopping the boats."

Kinnock additionally accused the Conservatives of "cooking the books" to pretend they were getting a handle on the spiraling asylum backlog.

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“They have been artificially withdrawing claims if someone misses an appointment. It doesn’t mean they’ve been processed, it just puts people into limbo. Then essentially, people are just slipping into the underground economy,” Kinnock voiced.

According to the Independent, over 6,000 people have been removed from the list without being completely reviewed, in only three months, for reasons such as missing interviews or appointments and failing to complete new fast-track questionnaires.

In March, the Telegraph reported that the UK government could force asylum seekers to move out of hotels and be placed in military bases or disused ferries, something the government did not deny at the time. 

Using ferries as a housing option was previously suggested. The Times reported in November that Home Secretary Suella Braverman told officials to find sites that could take asylum seekers, and disused cruise ships were one of the options.

The UK also struck a £500m deal with France in March to fund a detention center in northern France.

Afghan refugees in UK are homeless after government hotel evictions

Afghan refugees in the United Kingdom are appearing to authorities as homeless after being kicked out of government hotels in "shameful" evictions. Many of the families fled to the UK after the Taliban took power in 2021, having worked with or for the British government and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

By the end of May, all 8,000 Afghans residing in bridging hotels had been presented with eviction notices, and the government had given them three months to find alternative housing.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, has now issued a warning after hearing claims that up to 20% of those removed had declared themselves homeless to local authorities. The hotels are being emptied in stages, with guests in the smaller hotels leaving first.

Labour MP Dan Jarvis, who served in Afghanistan, called the growing number of homeless families "shameful." He stated that moving people out of hotels was appropriate, but not at the rate that the government was doing it.