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news
Mohammad Ganjkhanlou (Pauline Ballet/SWpix.com)Asylum-seeking elite cyclist told to move to Bibby Stockholm barge — as Home Office says he cannot take his bike onboard
An elite cyclist who has won Asian Cycling Championships gold and competed in the individual time trial against Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna at last year's UCI Cycling World Championships now faces being ordered to move to the Bibby Stockholm barge by the Home Office.
Mohammad Ganjkhanlou is seeking asylum in the United Kingdom and has been based at a hotel in Reading for the past eight months, telling the Guardian that Reading Cycling Club has been "like family to me" as he seeks to "work my way back through the elite cycling system from the beginning".
However, the Home Office has ordered the 26-year-old Iranian to move to the Bibby Stockholm barge, a floating accommodation for asylum seekers awaiting the outcome of applications that is in Dorset and has made headlines since being implemented last August by then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, touted as a means of reducing the cost of accommodating asylum seekers.
In February, Labour MP Diana Johnson, who chairs the Home Affairs Committee reported that as many as six asylum seekers were sharing "small, cramped cabins" originally designed for one person" and questioned whether the detrimental impact on residents' mental health "could amount to violations of the human rights of asylum seekers".
It was also evacuated last year after traces of Legionella bacteria were found in the on-board water system, a bacteria that can cause a type of pneumonia.
A representative with the charity Care4Calais expressed concern that Ganjkhanlou's mental health would be "gravely at risk if he were sent to live on the Bibby Stockholm barge", especially as the Home Office confirmed to the Guardian that he would not be able to take his bike onboard.
Instead, he will be allowed to keep it at a lock-up in the port area and ride it elsewhere.
"The Reading Cycling Club are like family to me. Because I am an asylum seeker I have to work my way back through the elite cycling system from the beginning and the club is helping me with this," Ganjkhanlou said.
"If I can lock my bike up somewhere in Portland it would allow me to train on my own, but I will not have the chance to rebuild my career under the banner of Reading Cycling Club and race alongside my friends. When I found Reading Cycling Club bright days started for me and I forgot my sorrows a little and got closer to competing again.
"They got my race licence for me. They helped me enter competitions, they gave me the club race kit. If the Home Office transfers me to Bibby Stockholm I will be in prison, away from the cycling that is my life and my therapy."
The club's road race secretary Michael Gray added: "If he moves to Portland, he will suffer with not being able to race. His talent and positive mental attitude will be slammed back down to zero. There are no race tracks, road races or race teams near there, and there is no room for him to take his bike onboard. It is his bike that keeps him focused and happy and gives him something to aim for every week and every month."
He also pointed out Ganjkhanlou's past achievements in the sport, having won the Asian Cycling Championships' U23 road race ahead of Astana Qazaqstan rider Yevgeniy Fedorov in 2019, three years before the Kazakh rider won the U23 World Championship road race.
Ganjkhanlou has also finished second in Iran's national road race championships and competed in the time trial of last summer's UCI Cycling World Championships, placing 66th in the Stirling-based event won by Evenepoel.
"For an elite cyclist like Mohammad, the prospect of not being able to train with his local club or compete in races is unimaginable," Emma Clark Lam from Care4Calais commented.
"We're still hoping the Home Office will change their mind on this, but if they don't, it would be a very cruel outcome for poor Mohammad."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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A bit of an update on this. I'm indirectly involved in a plan as one of my work colleagues runs the local cycling club. I say indirectly as I'm not on Facebook and the club have been approached for assistance, by a support group for barge residents. It turns out that the offer of "bike storage" offered by the port isn't that practical, so we're looking at crowdfunding some rented secure storage in the marina which is a 2 minute walk from the port gate. I'll know more next week.
If this comes off (it may or may not), and there's a crowdfunder, I'll post a link here. Thanks (hopefully) in advance.
Well done for Reading cyclists for being so welcoming.
Was a time when the UK seemed keen to take in "refugees" with sporting talents...
Personally I'd be happy to see an adjusted "points" scheme in place - perhaps if you turn up on a bike and can show some promising power data you're in?
It sounds like the residents up the hill from the barge at HMP The Verne are afforded better protections of their human rights.
Just as water company execs should be made to drink their river water and town planners should cycle their infrastructure, any Home Secretary should be forced to spend at least 1 week in the accommodation they condemn asylum seekers to be penned in
This is appalling. How come he can't be allowed to stay in Reading? He's made a good bond with the local club and is a valued member. It shows just hoe nasty the Home Office has become under the present government.
With the Tory Death Cultists, cruelty is the point.
(Dagnammit - The_Ewan got there first)
Not just the Home Office…
It's the Home Office - the cruelty is the point.
Fixed it
I liked, but because I appreciated the improved accuracy and comedy value, not because I support the madness of the Tory plan to do crazy ****.
That's not strictly true, the port is a secure area in the sense that it's gated off from public access (used to be HMS Osprey, it was a RN base) and has its own police & security, nobody's stealing a bike from there. Secondly the guests at the barge are free to come and go as they please, there's a free hourly bus for the exclusive use of residents that shuttles to and from Weymouth town centre. Unlike as another has said, the residents at HMP Verne who are locked up 24 hours a day.
Many of them have had a positive impact on the area, for example, some skilled carpenters did some repair work at the local museum, another (who I've picked up on Strava) is tearing up local running segments and owning the local 5k parkrun. I don't think any of the current guests have tried to run away.
On a wider note, although it's bad that this individual is being moved away from Reading and the environment he has become settled in, there are ample opportunities for cyclists in this area, several clubs which I know for a fact would welcome him, mine certainly would. There's a thriving local TT scene (courses P451 and P459 are on the doorstep), there's some amazing cycle routes around the Purbecks, Jurassic Coast, Lyme Regis, Eggardon, etc.
I would say guests yes.
How would you refer to them?
When people have been seized from where they are living and have connections by police officers and forced onto coaches that drive them hundreds of miles away to the barge (as the authorities tried to do in my area just last week but were blocked by protesters) I'm not sure "guest" is the first word that springs to mind. It is effectively a quasi prison with day release.
OK I see your point, I wasn't thinking of "guest" in the hospitality sense, more in the context of temporary visitor or resident. My wider points regarding opportunities here still remain.
They applied for asylum here. They shouldn't be thought of as "temporary visitors or residents" - we have obligations under international law not to stick them on a barge until we can ship them off to a third nation that we have unilaterally decided is "safe".
(OT but does anyone else think it's funny that when France refuses to take back people who've washed up here it's terrible and disgusting but when we refuse to take back people from Ireland who got there from NI then that's tickety boo?).
You're misunderstanding what I'm saying - they're temporary visitors in my local area because they're (hopefully) not staying on a barge in Portland harbour for too long.
OK, my misunderstanding then.
Well, I'm sorry if I misinterpreted what you are trying to say. I guess i'm just reacting to the whole hostile environment thing, and the orwellian use of language around refugees in this country.
Guests sounds like they willingly are staying at some hotel, rather than moved against their will into a legionnaire's disease infected ship, just so some politician can act tough. I'm not sure what another word might be. "Vulnerable human being" might be a good phrase for the media and politicians to use.
That'll be right wing freedom as opposed to the freedom that you enjoy and normal people understand. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66444120, as for "guests", even tory cunts would wince, or perhaps admire your style, at that absurd use of the language.