‘mentally, it was very stressful for me’: the first resident to speak out about life onboard the bibby stockholm reveals what it’s like on the asylum barge

IMMIGRATION

Bibby Stockholm management turned the barge’s internet off after the suspected suicide of Leonard Farruku, a former resident has alleged.

The former resident described life over four months on the controversial barge – which houses asylum seekers off the coast of Portland, in Dorset – speaking though an interpreter.

“They cut the network for two days – we couldn’t share or use anything,” he said. “They didn’t say it’s because of the incident, they said it’s a technical issue and we are trying to fix it. Before the incident everything was fine and we used to send messages.”

Links to news articles about Farruku’s death and videos of ambulances and police cars captured by witnesses were sent to a WhatsApp group, set up by management but used by residents to share information about the gym, or track down lost TV remotes, the man said. But they were quickly deleted. It was only later that day, when they returned to the barge, that residents received a WhatsApp message from management telling them about the death.

“The information we received about the suicide in general, we were like any other person that’s watching from outside the barge, and it was very confidential,” said the man – believed to be the first former resident of the barge to speak to the media, and whose name has been withheld to protect his safety.

“But as witnesses to the situation, we were all sad. As someone who used to be around us, and walking between us, as someone who didn’t want to be on the barge, and he’s been forced to be in this place – dead. All of us tried to ask about what was happening, but everyone was saying ‘oh it’s confidential’.”

The chat history was also deleted, the former resident claims, with those on the barge told they could no longer use it to communicate with each other.

Farruku’s death had a lingering impact. “On that day, we couldn’t sleep. For one month, I couldn’t stop thinking about the situation,” he said.

In November 2023, the former resident was moved from an asylum hotel near Gatwick to the Bibby Stockholm barge. He described his room as “very, very small”, with a cold bed frame, which would wake him in the night if he touched it.

“Mentally, the environment of the room was really bad. Mentally, it was very stressful for me. The room was ver