A small group of asylum-seekers has been moved onto a barge moored in southern England as the U.K. government tries to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country, British news media reported Monday.

The asylum-seekers were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, a floating hostel that will ultimately house up to 500 men, from other sites around the country. More were expected to arrive later Monday as authorities seek to reduce the number of asylum-seekers housed in expensive hotel rooms that were requisitioned on an emergency basis as the number of arrivals has surged in recent years.

The barge, which is owned by UK-based Bibby Marine, is normally used to provide temporary housing for workers when local accommodation isn't available. With three stories of closely packed bedrooms, the barge resembles a college dormitory, though the rooms are utilitarian. It also includes a kitchen, dining area, common rooms and laundry facilities.

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The Bibby Stockholm is moored in Portland Port on the south coast of England, where some locals have opposed the plan because of concern about the impact on the small surrounding community, which already has a shortage of medical services and is connected to the mainland by a single road. Immigrants rights groups are also opposed, saying it is inappropriate to house asylum-seekers in such accommodation.

The U.K. government wants to use barges and former military bases to accommodate some migrants after the cost of housing them in hotels soared to $2.4 billion last year.

Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told the BBC that people arriving in the U.K. via unauthorized means should have "basic but proper accommodation" and that they "can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel."

A rebel group has killed at least 11 people in northeastern Congo, a local official said Monday.

Jonas Pandanzi, president of a local civil society organization in the Central African nation’s North Kivu province, said the victims were shot and killed early Sunday by members of M23, a rebel group the United Nations says has links to neighboring Rwanda. Rwanda denies the accusation.

M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, located on the border with Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that the group accuses Congo's government of failing to implement.

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The Sunday morning attack took place following armed confrontations between M23 and local self-defense groups near the village of Bwito, where the bodies of the 11 civilians were found, Pandanzi said. The rebel group reportedly retreated into the area, killed residents, and stole valuables.

According to civil society leader Pandanzi, troops from a regional intergovernmental organization who were deployed in the area did not intervene. The death toll is provisional, he said, as some local residents were missing in the wake of the attack.

Conflict has simmered in eastern Congo for decades as more than 120 armed groups fight for control of valuable mineral resources and some to protect their communities. Mass killings by rebel groups are frequent, and the violence has triggered an exodus of refugees.