Dinghy arrivals / asylum seekers / gimmegrants

[petej]

Has anybody seen a good review of the actual policy and legal changes and if implemented will have any impact or if they are practical and feasible? This gov tends to propose rubbish to get a reaction rather than to achieve anything.

[Biffer]

Has anybody seen a good review of the actual policy and legal changes and if implemented will have any impact or if they are practical and feasible? This gov tends to propose rubbish to get a reaction rather than to achieve anything.

David Allen Green has done some decent legal analysis I think, as have David Henig and Adam Wagner.

[Ymx]

You're the one looking at a boat of foreigners and claiming they're predators, ymx. You don't deserve civility.

You tell me oh Virtuous one.

[Tichtheid]

JOINT CIVIL SOCIETY STATEMENT ON THE PASSAGE OF THE ILLEGAL MIGRATION ACT
Posted on 18 Jul 2023


...We all deserve to live safe from harm. But this senselessly cruel Act will have a devastating impact on people’s lives. It turns our country’s back on people seeking safety, blocking them from protection, support, and justice at a time they need it most.
In abandoning the UK’s moral and legal obligations, the Act risks breaching multiple international human rights treaties including the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights while shielding the Government from accountability. The UK Government has admitted that it cannot confirm if the Act is compatible with the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights...


https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/i ... ation-act/

[Ymx]

Not ceased yet.

[Ymx]

Not sure if this is still accurate.



Does the King now need to sign it?

[Biffer]

Not sure if this is still accurate.



Does the King now need to sign it?

Yeah, they'll all be on the beaches saying 'oh, the King has signed it? I'd better not get on the boat then'.

FFS

[Ymx]

I think it is very naive to think these people have no awareness of the new immigration bill, when they are forking out for a hefty chunk of cash. One they possibly can not afford a second time.

It all depends if they believe it’s going to be a damp squib like Rwanda or not.

I’m sure care4calais and various activists legal groups will be “helping”

From one report I saw that the ECHR could fine the UK and insist of UK paying compensation to those they’ve turned back.

We shall see how it plays out.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Not sure if this is still accurate.



Does the King now need to sign it?

Yeah, they'll all be on the beaches saying 'oh, the King has signed it? I'd better not get on the boat then'.

FFS

We could could tell them Andrew has approved it, at minimum that might cause alarm for those with children

[Ymx]

Well they should be, they are mostly kids apparently.

[Ymx]

Royal assent

[Tichtheid]

Many migrants who fall into the "Illegal" category could also be described as those who move countries to better their economic circumstances. There is an overlap with people also come to the UK to better their life situation from certain favoured countries, including New Zealand and Australia, those are not deemed illegal.

it's just a matter of luck where one is born.

[Ymx]

Many migrants who fall into the "Illegal" category could also be described as those who move countries to better their economic circumstances. There is an overlap with people also come to the UK to better their life situation from certain favoured countries, including New Zealand and Australia, those are not deemed illegal.

it's just a matter of luck where one is born.

NZ as example, (who shares the same head of state) only gives you a right to a visa. And it may have changed, though it facilitated non professional work only (hence the bar staff prevalence), and certainly not a free multi-year hotel holiday.

It’s shameful the amount of money being given to these pretenders and predatory bunch, getting so much more than our pensioners.

In my case, it is not a NZ thing, but is for direct ancestry.

[Ymx]

This won’t help with trust.

I hope this sends a shockwave through the legal society, and these lot are disbarred.

Lawyers charging £10,000 to make fake asylum claims: Special investigation exposes staff at immigration law firms briefing clients on how to LIE to the authorities to win the right to stay in Britain

Lawyers are charging thousands of pounds to submit false asylum and human rights claims for illegal immigrants.

Staff at solicitors’ firms readily agreed to help an undercover Mail reporter posing as an economic migrant get refugee status.

This was despite being told he had no legitimate reason to stay in the UK after arriving on a small boat.

VP Lingajothy asked for £10,000 to invent a horrific back story to use in the asylum application. This included claims of sexual torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats that left him suicidal and compelled to flee to the UK.

The legal adviser promised he could get a doctor’s report to back up the story and produced anti-depressants to be given to the Home Office as ‘evidence’ of psychological trauma.

Staff at solicitors¿ firms readily agreed to help an undercover Mail reporter posing as an economic migrant get refugee status - despite being told he had no legitimate reason to stay in the UK after arriving on a small boat. VP Lingajothy (pictured) asked for £10,000 to invent a horrific back story to use in the asylum application

Rashid Ahmad Khan (pictured) told our covert reporter he can¿t help him apply for asylum if he doesn¿t say ¿his life is in danger back home' and told him to lie to the Home Office

At another firm a lawyer said he would have to ‘create the evidence’ to make it appear the reporter had a genuine fear of ‘persecution and assassination’ if he returned home.

READ MORE HERE: The cynical story spun by a legal advisor to undercover reporters posing as an economic migrant who arrived on a small boat to help them beat the system

He boasted of a success rate of more than 90 per cent with similar asylum cases. A third outlined the ‘fine ingredients of an asylum case’ he said he would use to make it appear the reporter feared for his life in India. This could include anti-government political allegiances, a love affair with someone from the wrong caste or being gay.

Two said they would falsely claim the Mail’s reporter was a ‘victim of human trafficking’ who had been fleeced, betrayed and abandoned by people smugglers.

Many of the law firm staff enjoy wealth and prestige, including Mr Lingajothy who owns a multi-million pound property empire with his wife, drives a BMW with personalised number plates and sent his son to Eton.

But while immigrants face jail for making false asylum claims, solicitors who encourage, facilitate and profit from them merely face professional sanctions.

One law firm sacked the representative the Mail spoke to and closed one of its offices after we revealed our findings. It said his actions breached the law and broke the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s code of conduct.

Our investigation also found:

Lawyers said they would help coach clients to make false asylum claims for Home Office interviews;

One solicitor who invented a story for our reporter to use also branded Home Secretary Suella Braverman ‘dumb’;

Another firm’s legal representative, who concocted a fake story for our undercover reporter, addressed the UN Human Rights Council last year and has in interviews berated the Home Office and immigration judges for not believing asylum claims.

There were 74,751 asylum applications, relating to nearly 90,000 people, in 2022 ¿ more than twice the number of applications in 2019 ¿ with just under half from people who arrived by small boat
The SRA says its members must act with ‘honesty and integrity’ and not ‘mislead or attempt to mislead’ a court, tribunal, regulator or others. Those found to be acting dishonestly face being struck off.

But our investigation discovered widespread and blatant abuse of the rules by lawyers and legal representatives at registered solicitors’ firms.

In most cases they suggested our journalist, who was originally from the Punjab, should pretend to be a supporter of a Sikh separatist movement banned in India – giving him grounds for asylum.

In two cases the solicitors, who charge between £4,000 and £10,000 for their services, invented elaborate fake stories to back up the claim.

One said he would scour the internet for extra information to bolster the concocted story and was happy to send the Home Office pictures of another man who looked similar to the reporter at anti-government protests in India.

There were 74,751 asylum applications, relating to nearly 90,000 people, in 2022 – more than twice the number of applications in 2019 – with just under half from people who arrived by small boat. Almost all of the one in four asylum claimants whose applications were rejected by the Home Office last year appealed.

Many of the law firm staff enjoy wealth and prestige, including Mr Lingajothy (pictured) who owns a multi-million pound property empire with his wife, drives a BMW with personalised number plates and sent his son to Eton
ASYLUM CLAIM Q&A

Who is entitled to claim asylum in the UK?

Those unable to live safely in any part of their own country because they fear persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other social, cultural, religious or political situation that puts them at risk. They must also have failed to get protection from authorities in their own country.

Are solicitors allowed to submit an asylum claim they know to be false?

No. The Solicitors Regulation Authority says its members must act with ‘honesty and integrity’ and not ‘mislead or attempt to mislead’ a court, tribunal or regulator.

What are the legal penalties for fake asylum applications?

Immigrants face two years in prison or being ordered out of the UK if they give false information on an asylum application. Solicitors do not face any criminal penalty but those found to be acting dishonestly could be struck off.

It is understood that up to 40 solicitors’ firms are being monitored by the authorities amid suspected asylum claim ‘abuses’ and allegations of ‘carbon copy’ applications from different people represented by the same firms.

Tony Smith, a former head of the UK Border Force, called for stronger checks on ‘rogue solicitors’ who invent stories for immigration claims. He described it as ‘big business’ and said the legal representatives were ‘making profits out of other people’s misery’.

‘Coaching people to tell lies to gain an advantage in terms of an application they are making is quite wrong, because we should really be working on a basis of integrity from the lawyers,’ he said.

‘If we’re going to continue to allow lawyers to sit in on immigration interviews and represent immigrants in interviews about status, we need to be satisfied that they are properly accredited and that accreditation would demand a rigorous assessment of integrity.’

Alp Mehmet of Migration Watch, which campaigns for tougher border controls, added: ‘This is shocking. It is beyond belief that lawyers would pervert the course of justice by concocting stories for bogus asylum seekers and pocket huge sums by doing it.

‘It undermines the legal system and discredits the asylum process. Such lawyers are a disgrace to their profession.’

A spokesman for the SRA said last night: ‘All solicitors should uphold the high professional standards that we and the public expect of them. This is especially important in areas such as immigration where those involved may be among the most vulnerable in society.

The daily heil

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... sylum.html

[Ymx]

This doesn’t help either

[Ymx]

A few days of zeros doesn’t seem to be uncommon, looking at it over time. But zero days are always good.

There might be a wait and see on what’s happened to the last couple of boat loads, in terms of the new law.

[Ymx]

Tweet from Rishi

Worth reading all of it. Ignore the silly Labour swipe.

[Hal Jordan]

No, we shouldn't ignore the "silly" swipe. It's literally the language of authoritarianism.

[Guy Smiley]

Is the UK leaving the UN now?

https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/definitions

Refugee

Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection. The refugee definition can be found in the 1951 Convention and regional refugee instruments, as well as UNHCR’s Statute.

Easy to state that a person is 'an illegal immigrant' but you have to actually prove it. Meanwhile, simply seeking asylum is not illegal.

[JM2K6]

Removing all reasonable ways to seek asylum is also an incredibly shit thing to do even before you consider everything they've done since then. Fascists and racists might salivate over this stuff but it's scum behaviour that diminishes us as a people. Absolutely appalling stuff enacted in the hope of clinging on to power they've shown themselves manifestly unsuited to wield. Cunts, the lot of them.

[Guy Smiley]

They’ve modelled this whole thing on the Australian policy and there has been substantial personnel movement between the two countries as the political parties recruit and share talent.

Australia’s ‘Pacific Solution’ has cost billions and with a serious investigative body now up and running, signs of corruption are beginning to surface with huge payments made to various bodies for simple business reasons.

That is… trading human rights for profit.

These are the actions of cunce, absolute cunce.

[Ymx]

No, we shouldn't ignore the "silly" swipe. It's literally the language of authoritarianism.

Get off your high horse. And read the main part.

It’s hardly worse than this



What’s this the language of?

I’d say the door was fairly well opened to receive that type of mild comment, in response to this type of campaigning.

[Ymx]

Fourth, I’m ending the farce of illegal migrants being put up in hotels by the taxpayer.

One way we’re doing this is by using barges to house migrants and reduce pressures on local communities.

Fifth, I’m ensuring that the only way to come to the UK for asylum will be through safe and legal routes.

And as we get a grip of illegal migration, we’ll create more of those routes so we can continue to help those in genuine need, like we have done for Ukrainians.

Labour have tried to block every vote to stop the boats. Their plan for immigration is an open door.

But I know stopping the boats is a priority for the British people.

Copied from the last few tweets

[Line6 HXFX]

Priority?
So not global warming, cost of living crisis, housing, the NHS, getting chancers and charlatians like farage and sunak out of politics.. inot inequality etc..

Nope..the priority of the British people, is being spiteful as fuck to some of the most desperate people on the planet.

Stopping pregnant asylum seekers and new mothers having 3 quid.

It's like all the shit in the world has been poured into the soul of brits...and shit is now coursing through our veins, and is what we now use for blood.

Dog shit.

[Ymx]

Priority?
So not global warming, cost of living crisis, housing, the NHS, getting chancers and charlatians like farage and sunak out of politics.. inot inequality etc..

Nope..the priority of the British people, is being spiteful as fuck to some of the most desperate people on the planet.

Stopping pregnant asylum seekers and new mothers having 3 quid.

It's like all the shit in the world has been poured into the soul of brits...and shit is now coursing through our veins, and is what we now use for blood.

Dog shit.

Pipe down if you’re not a net contributor to tax and society please.

[Ymx]

It’s certainly fewer so far. A small blip.

[Biffer]

Priority?
So not global warming, cost of living crisis, housing, the NHS, getting chancers and charlatians like farage and sunak out of politics.. inot inequality etc..

Nope..the priority of the British people, is being spiteful as fuck to some of the most desperate people on the planet.

Stopping pregnant asylum seekers and new mothers having 3 quid.

It's like all the shit in the world has been poured into the soul of brits...and shit is now coursing through our veins, and is what we now use for blood.

Dog shit.

Pipe down if you’re not a net contributor to tax and society please.

Look forward to you shutting the fuck up when you retire the

[Ymx]

Priority?
So not global warming, cost of living crisis, housing, the NHS, getting chancers and charlatians like farage and sunak out of politics.. inot inequality etc..

Nope..the priority of the British people, is being spiteful as fuck to some of the most desperate people on the planet.

Stopping pregnant asylum seekers and new mothers having 3 quid.

It's like all the shit in the world has been poured into the soul of brits...and shit is now coursing through our veins, and is what we now use for blood.

Dog shit.

Pipe down if you’re not a net contributor to tax and society please.

Look forward to you shutting the fuck up when you retire the

And I look forward to when you stop sniffing bike seats, you dirty snurger. As this is the level of posts we are trading now.

[Insane_Homer]

Cruella's barges fail fire safety checks

Maybe they could be reused for the next Tory conference?

[SaintK]

Cruella's barges fail fire safety checks

Maybe they could be reused for the next Tory conference?

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

[Ymx]

Good

Watchdog shuts three solicitors firms accused in asylum sting

SRA seizes documents and money of firms that appeared to offer to file false asylum claims for undercover reporter
Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

Mon 31 Jul 2023 19.37 BST

Three law firms in England accused of wrongdoing in dealing with asylum applications have been shut down by the solicitors’ watchdog.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has also suspended the practising certificates of three solicitors – one from each of the firms that have been shut down.

Suella Braverman
UK’s post-Brexit policing pact with EU put at risk by migration laws, say peers
Read more
The practices were named in a Daily Mail investigation, which alleged that several individuals working with solicitors firms had been charging thousands of pounds to submit false asylum and human rights claims.

An undercover reporter for the newspaper said they had been offered help in obtaining refugee status in the UK, despite having made it clear to several advisers they had no legitimate right to stay.

The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has since written to the SRA demanding that it came down hard on any proven cases of wrongdoing.

On Monday, replying to Chalk, Anna Bradley, chair of the SRA board, said that she was “shocked” by the apparent behaviour of the solicitors under scrutiny.

She wrote: “We obtained from the Daily Mail recordings and transcripts of conversations with four of the solicitors in question and have reviewed that material.

“We have commenced an urgent on-site inspection of two of the firms involved to gather further evidence. Based on the evidence available, we have taken the following urgent action: intervening into three of the firms, this has the effect of suspending from practice the individual solicitors involved and closing the firms.”

The solicitors and firms in question are Rashid Khan, from Rashid & Rashid, which is based in Wimbledon, south London, Muhammad Ahmad, from Kingswright solicitors in Birmingham and Muhammad Hayat at Lincoln Lawrence solicitors in Hounslow, west London.

Additionally, an order was issued against VP Lingajothy, formerly of Duncan Ellis Solicitors, south London, which means that he cannot work in another solicitor firm without the SRA’s permission.

The watchdog’s intervention means that not only have the firms been stopped from operating but the SRA has taken possession of all their documents and papers and all money held by the firm (including clients’ money). It said another firm of solicitors has been appointed to act as its agent to deal with all matters currently held by the firms in question.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ylum-sting

[petej]

It’s certainly fewer so far. A small blip.

Considering the weather in June was ideal for such crossings while July has been very wet and windy I would be astonished if crossing weren't down.

[shaggy]

Cruella's barges fail fire safety checks

Maybe they could be reused for the next Tory conference?

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

[Sandstorm]

Cruella's barges fail fire safety checks

Maybe they could be reused for the next Tory conference?

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Thanks for the technical explanation Shaggy, but the actual reason is that Braverman is a fucking idiot.

[SaintK]

Cruella's barges fail fire safety checks

Maybe they could be reused for the next Tory conference?

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Thanks.
However you’d have thought they’d have taken all that into account before rushing into announcing that the first occupants would arrive today before all the fire risk assessments had been signed off.
Braverman looking for cheap headlines in the Tory press

[tabascoboy]

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Thanks.
However you’d have thought they’d have taken all that into account before rushing into announcing that the first occupants would arrive today before all the fire risk assessments had been signed off.
Braverman looking for cheap headlines in the Tory press

All part of the plan - delayed because "Health and Safety gone mad!!!"

[Tichtheid]

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Thanks.
However you’d have thought they’d have taken all that into account before rushing into announcing that the first occupants would arrive today before all the fire risk assessments had been signed off.
Braverman looking for cheap headlines in the Tory press

This thread is doing the same thing, the issue of immigration is a "look over there, there's an eagle" to keep people away from looking at the total failure of the government since 2010. The fact that they've also failed on immigration is neither here nor there.

Austerity and making the economy work for people - failure

Preparedness for a pandemic - failure

Brexit - failure



It will be at least fourteen years since they moved into government by the time of the next election, has life in the UK improved since 2010?

Nope, theTories are vile, corrupt and motivated only by helping themselves and those who give them money and or power. They got rid of anyone in their party who I might not agree with, but at least I could see their side of the argument and replaced them with populists who really only care about wealth and power for themselves.

Anyone who would vote for this party who isn't getting personally enriched is a complete fool. The thing is, as the rest of the country crumples, it will impact on those who are enriched too, as social problems increase as a direct result of their policies, everyone suffers.

[dpedin]

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Thanks.
However you’d have thought they’d have taken all that into account before rushing into announcing that the first occupants would arrive today before all the fire risk assessments had been signed off.
Braverman looking for cheap headlines in the Tory press

This thread is doing the same thing, the issue of immigration is a "look over there, there's an eagle" to keep people away from looking at the total failure of the government since 2010. The fact that they've also failed on immigration is neither here nor there.

Austerity and making the economy work for people - failure

Preparedness for a pandemic - failure

Brexit - failure



It will be at least fourteen years since they moved into government by the time of the next election, has life in the UK improved since 2010?

Nope, theTories are vile, corrupt and motivated only by helping themselves and those who give them money and or power. They got rid of anyone in their party who I might not agree with, but at least I could see their side of the argument and replaced them with populists who really only care about wealth and power for themselves.

Anyone who would vote for this party who isn't getting personally enriched is a complete fool. The thing is, as the rest of the country crumples, it will impact on those who are enriched too, as social problems increase as a direct result of their policies, everyone suffers.

All of this! I am amazed at how easily the Gov create or latch onto Farrage driven issues in order to distract from their complete and utter incompetence whilst folk fail to realise their Gov is blatantly lying to them. Almost all of your key services like water and sewage, education, NHS, housing, railways, etc are all falling apart yet they distract folk with a 'boat people', nasty Coutts bankers, women with penises or woke, tofu socialist 'Stop Oil. The Gov have completely given up on actual governing and are preparing the ground for losing power/seats by lining their own pockets and those of their mates in private sector in order to get the job offers post GE.

[fishfoodie]

Cruella's barges fail fire safety checks

Maybe they could be reused for the next Tory conference?

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Is it this barge or another one they doubled the occupancy of ?

That would be a flashing red light to any Fire Officer evaluating it's safety. You can't just arbitrarily double the number of people sleeping in a place, & say it's just as safe as when it had half that many.

[shaggy]

Everything she's involved in inevitably turns to rat shit! I wonder why?

Possibly an assumption but your typical offshore Flotel houses an industrial workforce which has significant safety training, which includes what to do in a fire. Much of the kit fitted and procedures will take into account this training all personnel housed possess. Moving to a non-trained occupancy will mean adjustments necessary in line with passenger ships.

I have been involved in this in the past and it is pretty complex so audit findings are not unexpected. Thinking back to the last Flotel I was responsible for vetting the number of findings was close to 100, taking a couple of weeks to close.

Is it this barge or another one they doubled the occupancy of ?

That would be a flashing red light to any Fire Officer evaluating it's safety. You can't just arbitrarily double the number of people sleeping in a place, & say it's just as safe as when it had half that many.

Best not believe the press on this type of thing, they have absolutely no understanding.

The barge is designed, built and independently verified by a Classification Society to double occupancy in rooms. It was fitted out at some point in the past for single occupancy, probably at behest of charterer requirements, and then reverted to the original double occupancy design.

There are more ongoing checks applied to shipping, and in particular passenger ships/accommodation than for land based accommodation/hotels.