Asylum seekers have started boarding the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, after numerous delays
However, the Home Office confirmed just 15 people have boarded the barge today
There's been considerable local opposition, with fears about the asylum seekers' welfare and the impact on local services
The government says the barge will be better value for British taxpayers than hotels, which cost £6m a day
Asylum seekers can come and go from the site, but are asked to sign in and out
A letter says there will be wi-fi, English classes, an on-site nurse, and "entertainment areas" on board
The barge will house up to 500 men aged between 18 and 65 - the capacity has been increased by putting bunk beds in cabins
But some asylum seekers had their transfers to the barge cancelled after legal interventions, a charity says
You can read our story on what the Bibby Stockholm is like inside here, or you can catch up on the controversy surrounding the Bibby Stockholm here.
Our main story on the barge, which will continue to be updated into the evening, can be found here.
Image source, PA MediaWe're ending our live coverage shortly, here are the main points from today:
Ione Wells
Political correspondent
The government say 15 people have boarded the barge.
Remember, it was expected the first tranche of arrivals would be 50 men.
So this number is lower than thought - and lower than the government had hoped and briefed.
A Home Office official said there had been “minor” challenges.
We know about 20 people represented by the refugee charity Care4Calais had their transfers to the barge cancelled.
The government is not happy about this, with a government source saying that they have “another day” to move or they will consider removing their accommodation support.
This could turn into another messy legal back-and-forth over another immigration plan.
Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation at the Home Office, confirms the numbers going aboard today.
She admits there have been "some minor legal challenges".
We've just heard from the official in charge of migrant accommodation at the Home Office, who says 20 people have refused to get on board the Bibby Stockholm so far.
Cheryl Avery, director for asylum accommodation at the Home Office, also says 15 people have boarded the vessel today.
Asked by reporters about the consequences for any asylum seekers who refuse, she does not answer directly but stresses the government offers accommodation to migrants on a "no choice" basis.
In response to a follow-up question about how long people are expected to be on the Bibby Stockholm, Avery says the Home Office expects they will be there for around three to nine months.
We've just heard from the Home Office, who have confirmed that 15 people have boarded the Bibby Stockholm today.
The barge is capable of holding about 500 people.
The government has announced a tripling of fines for firms employing illegal migrants or renting out property to them.
The government says its visits to companies, including those targeting illegal working, were “at their highest levels since 2019, up 50% on last year”, resulting in arrests of “more people in 2023 than during the whole of 2022”.
But Labour says the number of penalties issued to firms employing workers illegally has fallen by two-thirds since 2016, arrests have dropped, and illegal working visits are down by over 1,000 on 2019.
Who is right?
If you compare the number of fines to earlier years, there has been , externala 70% drop in penalties issued to employers since 2016. In 2016, there were 3,089 fines recorded, and in 2022 there were just 911.
There has also been a drop in the number of illegal working visits by Immigration Enforcement - a Home Office body responsible for tracking immigration offenders. In 2022, there were 3,735 visits by officials, external, down from 5,937 in 2019.
However, the number of arrests resulting from these visits has indeed been rising in 2023.
Up to July this year, there have been 3,959 arrests - more than in the whole of 2022. But this is still significantly lower than the 6,723 arrests recorded in 2019.
A local campaigner against putting the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland has described the island as a "really ridiculous place to put anybody in large numbers".
Susan Phoenix, from the "No to the Barge" campaign says having up to 500 people on the Bibby Stockholm risks putting a strain on local services, given there is just one road to get on and off Portland.
Quote MessageIf we have one accident on our causeway then neither ambulances nor fire engines or medical services can get across.”
But Phoenix also tells Radio 5 Live that her group has chosen not to protest the arrival of the first asylum seekers earlier, as they did not want to "annoy any vulnerable people" that may be boarding the vessel.
Image source, PA MediaPeople supporting the asylum seekers brought welcome packs to the port earlier
The use of the Bibby Stockholm to house asylum seekers is a policy which divides political opinion, both on a local level in Dorset and more broadly in the UK.
For supporters like former Tory immigration minister Robert Goodwill, housing asylum seekers on the barge is a "very practical solution to a very real problem".
The Scarborough and Whitby MP tells Radio 5 Live the government is spending £6m a day to keep peoples in hotels, which means it needs to assess "what alternatives can be more cost effective”, including using former military bases.
But for the head of the local Labour-run Portland Council, housing people on the Bibby Stockholm is neither safe nor reasonable.
Chairman Jim Draper says "people on the island are worried" over the safety of those on board.
As we've just been reporting, the number of migrants in hotels has increased by 3,000 since March - so how many asylum applications does the UK get?
In 2022, more than 89,000 people requested asylum in the UK.
That’s the highest number of applications since 2002 when 103,000 people (including dependants) applied, as people fled conflicts in Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.
Applications then fell sharply, dropping to a 20-year low in 2010, before climbing again as refugees fled Syria.
See how numbers have changed over the years here:
Mark Easton
Home editor
The government wants to use the Bibby Stockholm barge to help reduce the cost of asylum accommodation, especially hotels.
Now we've just seen that the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels has gone up by 3,000 since the end of March.
Interim figures released by the Home Office show a record 50,546 asylum seekers were in so-called contingency accommodation at the end of June.
The daily cost of the hotel rooms is more than £6m, the government says.
As we've just recapped, those on the Bibby Stockholm will all be men between 18 and 65. So how many asylum seekers are male?
The latest Home Office data, external shows that of the 91,047 people who applied for asylum in the year ending March 2023, 62% were adult men aged under 50.
Most of the people crossing the Channel in small boats are men. They made up 87% of small boat arrivals, external in the year ending March 2023. The majority of them claimed asylum.
Two of the new migrant accommodation sites announced by the government – in Lincolnshire and Essex – are for adult men only. The government has not said who will be accommodated at the other confirmed sites in North Yorkshire and Sussex.
Those on board will be single, adult male asylum seekers aged from 18 to 65.
The BBC understands they will be a long way into the asylum claim process.
Those on the barge will have had physical and mental health assessments, and been subject to security checks such as identity checks against UK immigration and police databases.
In an open letter addressing the plans, 40 organisations and campaigners have argued “containing people who have been through traumatising experiences, especially on a floating vessel, is cruel and inhumane".
If you're interested in seeing what the inside of the Bibby Stockholm looks like, we've put together a layout plan of the barge's top floor and one of its rooms:
Earlier we showed you pictures of a coach carrying several people arriving in Portland Port where the Bibby Stockholm barge is.
At least six people boarded the barge, carrying bags.
Here is a video of their arrival, this clip has no sound.
Labour has long criticised the government's strategy on migrants, and on Monday it said the pledge to stop the boats had been a "disastrous failure" after Home Office figures released today showed the number of migrants staying in hotels had hit 50,000.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the figure represented a 25% increase from 40,000 in December, when PM Rishi Sunak promised to end the placement of asylum seekers in hotels.
"Rishi Sunak is failing to fix the Tories' boats chaos and the Conservatives are just flailing around chasing headlines rather than getting a grip," she said, adding that taxpayers were having to pay "billions more pounds" as a result.
Cooper added the backlog of asylum decisions was still at a "record high".
At the end of March 2023, there were more than 47,500 asylum seekers living in hotels , externalacross the UK.
The Home Office says using hotels to accommodate asylum seekers costs about £6m a day., external
Nearly 3,000 more were living in other short-term accommodation.
The largest number of asylum seekers receiving government support - more than 56,000 - are living in longer-term housing known as “dispersed accommodation”.
A blue coach carrying several migrants on board has pulled up in Portland harbour outside the Bibby Stockholm
At least six people have just walked on board the barge, carrying bags - but it's not clear how many are asylum seekers.
As we've been reporting, migrants have started to arrive on board the Bibby Stockholm barge which is moored in Portland, Dorset.
Image source, .Bibby Stockholm is part of the government's latest plan to "stop the boats" and deter dangerous Channel crossings by migrants. But where do people seeking asylum in the UK come from?
In 2022, nationals from Albania were at the top of the list of countries seeking asylum in the UK, with nearly 16,000 people, including dependants. Two-thirds of them arrived on small boats.
The government calls Albania a safe country and has announced measures to try to reduce these numbers.
The second largest group, with just under 11,000 applications, came from Afghanistan, followed by Iran, Iraq and Syria.