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Dec. 12 (UPI) -- An asylum seeker was found dead Tuesday aboard an accommodation barge moored on the south coast of Britain, authorities said. Dorset Police said it was investigating the "sudden death of a resident" on the Bibby Stockholm, a converted oil and gas accommodation vessel moored in Portland Harbour in Dorset.
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"Officers are conducting inquiries into the circumstances of the incident," said the force adding that the coroner's office had been notified.
The BBC reported the death was a suicide.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office confirmed an investigation was underway into the death aboard the 440-berth barge, the first of four the government plans to lease to try to reduce the $7.9 million a day cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels.
The area's Conservative MP Richard Drax said: "While I never agreed to, nor accepted the imposition of the barge on South Dorset, I believe it was at least a decent, safe haven for some of those cruelly trafficked across the Channel.
"One can only imagine the desperate circumstances which led to this sad outcome; we must do all that we can to end this evil trade in human misery."
The barge plan has been beset with problems ever since former Home Secretary Suella Braverman launched the policy in April amid protests by local residents and delays caused by conversion work overruns and a series of safety scares that pushed back embarkation to mid-October.
Some asylum seekers at the time expressed apprehension about life on the 222-cabin barge which they likened to a prison, but expressed fears their claims for asylum would be affected unless they cooperated.
"I am worried and afraid. I do not want to go to the barge, but I don't have the courage to disobey. I am literally helpless," one man said.
Refugee advocacy groups claim they have been warning that resident's mental health has been going downhill ever since, with their suffering made worse by the isolated location of the barge.
Care4Calais demanded the government take responsibility "for this human tragedy."
"They have wilfully ignored the trauma they are inflicting on people who are sent to the Bibby Stockholm, and the hundreds being accommodated in former military barracks," said CEO Steve Smith.
"They are being separated from the rest of society and we have witnessed a serious deterioration of people's mental health. We have regularly been reporting suicidal intentions amongst residents and no action is taken. This can no longer continue."
Freedom from Torture said "cramped and dangerous conditions" on the Bibby Stockholm could be "profoundly re-traumatizing to survivors of torture and persecution, in addition to traumatic experiences they've suffered en route to the U.K.," the group's manager, Ann Salter, said in a statement Tuesday.
The apparent suicide comes hours before a crunch vote in parliament on emergency government legislation to try to get back on track its stalled policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda which has been ruled unlawful.
Documents released by the Home Office after an 11th-hour court ruling forced the first flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda to be aborted as it taxied on the runway in June 2022 showed detainees had to be restrained after threatening suicide and self-harming.
