The CEO of the charter company responsible for supplying the controversial barge being used to house asylum seekers has hit back at claims the vessel is a "floating prison".
Speaking exclusively to The Herald from on board the Bibby Stockholm on Portland, Joyce Landry said fears about the conditions on board have been caused by a lack of accurate information.
She also corrected claims made this week that two further vessels had been turned away from ports in Liverpool and Edinburgh, calling them "completely false".
On Wednesday police were forced to separate rival groups of activists on Portland, a small island in Dorset, who had turned out to protest the arrival of the vessel.
The UK government has charted the barge to hold up to 500 asylum seekers in a bid to alleviate the cost of and pressures on hotel accommodation.
While protestor groups are fighting different issues - asylum seekers in the community versus poor treatment of asylum seekers - they are united in one thing: repelling the barge.
Refugee rights groups have condemned the vessel's use, saying conditions on board are inhumane and amount to floating detention.
Ms Landry, the co-founder of Landry & Kling, described the Bibby Stockholm as "actually quite lovely" and said she will be "proud" to open the vessel to the UK media on Friday.
Tours of the barge were not set to go ahead for another week but Ms Landry said she is keen to press ahead with viewings in order to "dispel some of these notions".
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