UK to house asylum-seekers on ‘hulk’ and bases

Tory ministers hope the plan — which recalls the prison hulks of the 18th century — will deter English Channel crossings.

Prison Hulks on the River Thames, Woolwich (c. 1856). Source: Greenwich Local History Library

Migrants will be moved from hotels to a giant barge and two military bases under Tory government plans to deter people from coming to Britain.

The Times has been told that ministers have procured an “accommodation barge” capable of holding hundreds of migrants, which is being refitted. They have yet to decide where it will be based, although it will be located at a port rather than at sea.

A government source said the barge would have a “deterrent effect” on people crossing the Channel illegally. They added, however, that discussions about using it were at an early stage and acknowledged that there were significant practical problems.

The barge is of a kind more typically used for offshore construction projects and has basic facilities. It is unclear how the government would deal with matters such as the safety of those on board, although a government source said: “It’s a row we’re prepared to have.”

The detention of asylum-seekers on the water will recall the detention on decommissioned naval ships – hulks – of thousands of prisoners awaiting transportation to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Last night, Migration Minister Robert Jenrick was expected to confirm plans to transfer about 3000 migrants from hotels to two RAF bases, one of them Scampton in Lincolnshire – the base from which the Dambusters flew.

Mr Jenrick will give an update on progress towards Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge, made in December, to end the use of hotels to accommodate migrants, and his ambitious goal to clear a historic backlog of asylum cases by the end of the year.

More than 51,000 asylum-seekers are being housed in about 400 hotels, costing taxpayers £7m ($12.9m) a day.

The plan was revealed as Mr Sunak told MPs on Tuesday that the government had no choice but to detain migrant children, to deter people from taking their families on the “perilous journey” to Britain. Under the illegal migration bill, children arriving in the UK will be treated in the same way as other asylum-seekers and held in detention until they can be deported to Rwanda.

Speaking to the Commons liaison committee, Mr Sunak insisted that the “objective” of the policy was not to detain children but he had no choice but to include them to prevent the creation of a “pull factor”. He also played down expectations of deportation flights to Rwanda starting this summer.

The Dutch government has also announced plans to use chartered cruise ships to house refugees, and the Scottish government accommodated about 1170 Ukrainian refugees on two cruise ships.

The Times