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WorldMinisters intend to lodge refugees on outdated cruise ships

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Ministers intend to lodge refugees on outdated cruise ships

It is anticipated that an announcement would be made today on the housing of refugees aboard abandoned cruise ships and military camps.

Later today, the controversial options to hosting asylum seekers in hotels around the UK are expected to be announced by the ministers.

Former military facilities like RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, which served as the Dambusters’ base of operations during World War II, are among the potential locations the Home Office is considering.

Government sources told the BBC each site will have the capacity to house 1,500-2,000 migrants, and initially are more likely to be used for new arrivals rather than to rehouse people currently in hotels.

Raab: We’ll look at barges for housing migrants

Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman pauses, during a press conference in the capital Kigali, Rwanda Saturday, March 18, 2023. Braverman arrived in Rwanda on Saturday for a visit aimed at reinforcing the U.K. government's commitment to a controversial plan to deport some asylum-seekers to the African country. (AP Photo)
Home Secretary Suella Braverman previously said the government was looking at a number of alternative sites (Picture: AP)

Raab: We’ll look at barges for housing migrants

Other possibilities include using vessels such as a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick is to make the announcement, billed as a ‘move to rudimentary accommodation’.

It comes as the UK says it is spending £6.2m a day on hotels for asylum seekers, housing more than 51,000 people at 400 hotels across the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said vessels will be used to house asylum seekers where they can be ‘safely and responsibly’ utilised.

He told BBC Breakfast there is a ‘huge cost to the taxpayer’ of hotel use and this is ‘deeply frustrating’ to many, while acting as a ‘pull factor’.

He said: ‘We will look at the whole range of options, low-cost accommodation, ex-Army barracks and, where it’s appropriate, as has been used elsewhere in Europe, and I think in Scotland as well, vessels if they can safely and responsibly be used,’ he said.

‘The immigration minister will set out these proposals in detail in the House of Commons later today.’

Mr Jenrick is expected to make the announcement later today, however plans to house people in ex-military bases has already been criticised by Tory MPs.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has slammed plans to possibly house asylum seekers at MDP Wethersfield, in his Essex constituency of Braintree.

Mr Cleverly said the site was ‘inappropriate’ because it was remote and had limited transport infrastructure.

The government is also thought to disclose plans to make use of a clause in the levelling up bill to force councils to accept large-scale accommodation for those seeking asylum.

Regarding RAF Scampton, Sir Edward Leigh, the Tory MP for the area, has previously criticised the choice.

A deal had been agreed in March to allow West Lindsey District Council to purchase the base from the Ministry of Defence as part of a £300m regeneration project of the site for commercial activity, heritage, tourism and research.

The government is also said to be considering using a ‘giant barge’ capable of holding hundreds of people, according to the Times with a government source telling the paper it would have a ‘deterrent effect’ on people arriving in small boats.

Disused cruise ships, empty holiday parks and former student halls have also under consideration as alternatives to hotels.

The barges are built to house hundreds of people, although a government source told the Times that plans were at an ‘early stage’ and had significant practical issues that needed to be addressed.

Suella Braverman, the home secretary, is expected to announce alternatives to hotel accommodation as soon as this week.

Rishi Sunak told his Cabinet on Tuesday that the cost of using hotels and the pressure it puts on local areas meant it was not sustainable.

The Prime Minister later told MPs that children cannot be exempted from plans to detain people who cross the Channel in small boats to prevent the creation of a ‘pull factor’.

Appearing before the Commons Liaison Committee, he also downplayed suggestions that flights under the Government’s stalled Rwanda policy would begin this summer.

The ships would be moored off the coast, emulating an approach by the Scottish government, which housed Ukrainian refugees in two 700-cabin ships. They were docked in Glasgow and Edinburgh and could hold 1,750 people each.

Braverman said she would not rule out the use of former cruise ships when questioned in December by a House of Lords committee.

She said: ‘We will bring forward a range of alternative sites, they will include disused holiday parks, former student halls – I should say we are looking at those sites – I wouldn’t say anything is confirmed yet.

‘But we need to bring forward thousands of places, and when you talk about vessels all I can say is – because we are in discussion with a wide variety of providers – that everything is still on the table and nothing is excluded,’ she said.

A government spokesperson said: ‘We have always been upfront about the unprecedented pressure being placed on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country.

‘We continue to work across government and with local authorities to identify a range of accommodation options. The government remains committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders as part of this process.’

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