Barge migrants will be provided with free bus service into town

Asylum seekers who will be housed on a migrant barge in a south coast harbour will be 'free to come and go as they want', the Home Office has confirmed.

A free bus service will be laid on daily to transport around 500 migrants from the Bibby Stockholm in and out of Portland Port in Dorset.

Once they have left the port they will be free to roam around Weymouth, Portland and beyond. They will also have access to local services, including a GP.

A Home Office official confirmed that all the asylum seekers on the barge will be young, healthy men from different faiths and backgrounds, who will be heavily vetted by police and immigration services to ensure they have no criminal history.

They will have to abide by a code of conduct during their stay and partake in various activities on the barge to occupy them.

Portland currently has just one GP surgery and no hospital.