'Totally imprisoned': Asylum seeker speaks of conditions on Bibby Stockholm

• Max Walsh has been speaking to one asylum seeker who says he feels 'in limbo' as he waits for his claim to be processed.

An asylum seeker who has been living onboard the Bibby Stockholm barge on Portland says he feels "totally imprisoned".

Adam, who does not want his identity revealed, says he feels forgotten after months of waiting for a Home Office interview as part of his asylum seeker claim.

He told ITV News West Country: "In the beginning when they told us to come to the Bibby Stockholm I was given a letter that said 'in 90 days all of the process will be finished for you and the decision will be made or you will go somewhere else'.

"Whatever they told us is totally incorrect because some people on the barge stay for six months, seven months.

"We want to know what are we going to have in the future. You don't know what will happen tomorrow. But unfortunately we don't have anything."

Adam says he has been on Bibby Stockholm for four months and his health has deteriorated since moving onboard.

He said: "I feel now like I'm in limbo, I don't know about my future, what will happen to me.

"Not only me but the majority of people don't have an interview."

When he was asked what conditions were like on board the Bibby Stockholm, he said: "To be honest with you, you're giving away some of your human rights.

"You don't have the right to bring food from outside, you don't have the right to come or go whenever you like.

"We feel depressed because we are imprisoned, totally we are imprisoned without any mistake - I didn't do anything wrong."

Adam says overcrowding is an issue on the barge, which is housing more then 400 people, but wants to thank the country that saved him.

He said: "We come from war, we come from killings and kidnappings, so when we come to the UK we are thankful for the government.

"They have saved our life, which is the biggest thing a human has."

More than 100 men living on the Bibby Stockholm have been protesting, staging organised sittings and hunger strikes.

They have demonstrated against their treatment and what they say are lengthy delays to their claims being processed.

Campaigners in the Portland community have also staged a protest to show their support, and say asylum seekers are being treated inhumanely.

One campaigner said: "People feel like they're in a prison. They don't want to be ungrateful but their mental health is put at risk by the conditions that they are under. They have been left in limbo for so long. "

Another commented: "Some of them I have known for about four months and you can see their mental health going down and they are not as bright, they are not hopeful as they were and that just makes me so sad."

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers seriously and at every stage in the process will seek to ensure that all needs and vulnerabilities are identified and considered, including those related to mental health and trauma.”