Asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge are being moved to accommodation in the Midlands.

The Home Office is moving around 400 people off the barge in Portland, Dorset, as the Government department seeks to close the vessel by the end of the year.

Some migrants will be moved into a hotel in Wolverhampton, which is understood to be undergoing a change of use so it can house single male migrants. Council accommodation is Worksop will also be used.

It comes after Labour axed the barge as a form of migrant accommodation in a complete overhaul of the asylum system.

Asylum seekers transferred from Bibby Stockholm to Midlands hotel as Home Office wants to close barge by Christmas

Its contract for the barge is due to end in January - Labour had the option to renew or extend but decided not to.

The Home Office said that carrying on the contract would have cost over £20million a year.

RAF Wetherfield, which houses 500 single male migrants, is also set to be shut by Labour, however no date has been set.

Both Bibby Stockholm and the ex-RAF base were created by the Conservatives to try and reduce the number of migrants in hotels, which was then costing £8million a day.

The Home Office is now considering opening additional asylum hotels due to fears that they are running out of space to house migrants.

There is currently a backlog of almost 120,000 migrants who are still awaiting a decision on their claims.

Alongside this, Channel crossings have also surged by 12 per cent this year. 29,867 have arrived via small boat in 2024 alone.