Asylum seekers have had their moves onto the Bibby Stockholm blocked at the last-minute after lawyers for a refugee charity claimed some of them had a ‘severe fear of water’.

The transfers of 20 Migrants onto the barge in Portland Port  were ‘cancelled’ on Monday after legal challenges from representatives of Care4Calais claimed the Home Office had not screened them to see if it was suitable to put them there.

The charity’s CEO Steve Smith has since revealed that some of the asylum seekers it supported didn’t board the vessel today due to ‘mental health concerns’, some of which arose from being ‘traumatised by seeing their friends drown at sea’.

In total 15 migrants were transferred to the barge from hotels in Oxford, Bristol, Torbay and Bournemouth, as the government’s solution to its rocketing £6million-a-day hotel bill for new arrivals was put into action. It will eventually house 500 men aged 18 to 65 as they wait for their asylum applications to be processed.

But sources said officials were poised to remove accommodation funded by the public purse if migrants continued to decline a bed on the barge, which is moored on the Dorset coast. 

At the port campaigners brought flowers and welcome packs containing basic toiletries and other useful items, including a map of the area. But they were not able to give these directly to the migrants and had to leave them with security staff at the port gate.

Today, new figures showed the number of migrants staying in hotels has hit 50,000, a 25 per cent increase from 40,000 in December, when Rishi Sunak promised to end the placement of asylum seekers in hotels. 

The enormous three-storey barge is the length of a football pitch and has 222 en-suite bedrooms, a gym and a 24-hour canteen. Asylum seekers living onboard will take part in activities including cricket, cycling, tending allotments and going on guided hikes in the Dorset countryside. 

They will also take part in organised ‘cultural events’ and get free buses and taxis to enjoy local towns. Buses every hour from 7am to 11pm will ferry men to Weymouth, a nearby seaside resort with a beach, fishing boat fleet and marina.

If they miss the 11pm bus back to the barge, free taxis are available by phoning a special number. On top of free food, accommodation and transport, each migrant is given £9.58 a week pocket money.

Speaking on Monday Mr Smith revealed that none of the 20 migrants his charity was supporting had gone to the barge today as ‘legal representatives have had their transfers cancelled’.

 ‘These 20 range from survivors of torture to people who have been beaten, shot at, some arrested, some traumatised by seeing their friends drown at sea and who therefore have a severe fear of water,’ he told The Telegraph.

‘There are therefore mental health concerns and a very worried and very traumatised community. Details of those individuals have been passed to lawyers who have raised challenges about the suitability screening.

‘There appears to have been no suitability screening. I understand that on that basis some removals to the barge have ceased.’

Speaking elsewhere, he added: ‘To house any human being in a ”quasi floating prison” like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. 

‘To try and do so with this group of people is unbelievably cruel. Even just receiving the notices is causing them a great deal of anxiety.’

The legal firm behind the last-minute legal challenges is understood to be London-based Duncan Lewis, which played a key role in challenging the Government’s Rwanda asylum scheme.

However, it is understood that the ‘pre-action letters’ issued by the law firm could lead to the withdrawal of migrants’ free, full-board accommodation. In that event, they would be declared homeless and responsibility for their housing would pass to their local authority.

The Stand Up To Racism campaign group said the asylum seekers who avoided transfer to the barge included nine housed in Bournemouth.

A government source said: ‘This just shows what we are up against: Left-wing charities and lawyers are repeatedly trying to stop us from moving illegal migrants out of expensive hotels.

‘Other European countries use barges safely and at lower costs than hotels. Labour need to quit trying to sabotage our plans to stop the boats. It’s time they backed the barge.’

Yesterday, Portland resident Ian Broadhurst got into a heated debate with the Stand Up To Racism campaigners asking why they were giving help to strangers instead of helping poverty-stricken islanders.

Mr Broadhurst, who does charity work with the local food bank and community fridge, said: ‘This isn’t being racist, this is saying we need to look after ourselves. We cannot afford them here when we can’t even look after our own people.’

Home Office minister Sarah Dines said the vessel – which previously housed oil and gas workers – would provide ‘basic but proper accommodation’ and that those who arrive in the UK by illegal means ‘can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel’.  

She told the BBC this morning: ‘What it sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation but not luxurious.

‘Luxurious hotel accommodation has been part of the pull, I’m afraid. There have been promises made abroad by the organised criminal gangs and organisations which have tried to get people into the country unlawfully and they say, ”You will be staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of a town in England”.

‘That needs to stop and the barge is just one of a wide range of other measures.’

The vessel’s previous capacity of 222 has been doubled to 500 by putting bunk beds in its cabins and converting some communal rooms into dormitories for four to six men.

Ms Dines said the barge would be in use ‘imminently’, despite a series of delays, and suggested it could house 500 asylum seekers by the end of the week.

She also confirmed ‘all possibilities’ for tackling the migrant crisis are being examined, following reports that the Government is considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island.