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Ministers are considering housing migrants on ferries and barges as they seek alternative accommodation to hotels for migrants being processed.
The government is trying to cut costs by cutting about £6.8m a day spent hosting migrants and asylum seekers in hotels.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick is set to unveil plans Wednesday to house migrants at disused military bases, but those plans have faced opposition from some lawmakers.
This isn’t the first time the proposal has been made to house migrants on ships, but when it was first proposed in 2020, the idea was said to be “laughed off.”
I See what has changed since then and convince ministers that the policy could work.
What kind of policies is the government considering?
I We understand that the Home Office is considering using disused cruise ships or giant barges used for offshore construction projects to accommodate migrants.
Sources say it is the government’s “travel direction” to use ships for migrant accommodation, but no ships have actually been procured.
Ministers are reportedly already considering vessels that may include a former Indonesian cruise ship moored in the southwest of England.
The speculation comes as Jenrick is expected to announce plans to house immigrants in disused military bases rather than hotels in order to save money.
Why is the government considering housing immigrants on disused ships?
Governments are under pressure to find alternative accommodation and cut costs for asylum seekers to stay in hotels.
Around 400 hotels are currently in use across the country to accommodate over 51,000 people across the UK, according to the Home Office.
Times A disused 40-year-old ferry can be bought from Italy for £6 million and reportedly holds 1,400 people in 141 cabins. She also has the option to purchase a disused cruise ship currently moored in Barbados for £116m, with 1,000 cabins where she can accommodate 2,417 people.
Other proposals, such as housing asylum seekers at former military bases, have faced opposition from Rishi Sunak’s cabinet.
Plans to use two disused military bases, RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and MDP Wethersfield in Essex, for accommodation have faced opposition from local authorities, and Essex council leaders have called for legislation. are taking measures.
Foreign Minister James Cleverley, Local Councilor for Braintree, Essex, in charge of MDP Wethersfield, said the military base was an exile camp because of the “remote nature of the site, limited transport infrastructure and a narrow road network”. It was argued that it was inappropriate as
Interior Secretary Suella Braverman has previously promised “various alternatives” and said “nothing is left out” as the government considers accommodation alternatives to hotels.
Has this idea been suggested before?
Governments have considered the idea of housing migrants on old cruise ships in the past to discourage travel.
Snack has proposed housing illegal immigrants on cruise ships during the 2022 Conservative leadership campaign, which he said would help end the “hotel farce”.
Downing Street later admitted he had dropped the idea, with his publicist claiming last October that he was “unaware of any plans” to use the cruise ship.
But this wasn’t the first time he’d put forward the idea. Mr Sunak first floated it when it was reported in 2020 that the government was considering processing asylum seekers on a defunct ferry off the coast of Britain, but the idea was pushed back by officials. It was said that he was slapped.
According to Whitehall sources, Times It was “laughed off the table” by civil servants and throughout government at the cabinet level, and “quickly thrown out in favor of using other countries”.
Other ideas considered at the time included sending immigrants to centers on remote islands in the South Atlantic or processing them at facilities in Moldova, Morocco, or Papua New Guinea. Former Home Secretary Priti Patel eventually launched the government’s Rwanda plan.
Can the government actually house asylum seekers in hulks?
Initially, Sunak was forced to drop plans to house migrants on old cruise ships. This was because government lawyers had warned that the idea violated Britain’s obligations under his 1951 Refugee Convention.
Although the treaty prohibits states from detaining people claiming asylum, it does so by classifying idle ships as “hotels” before using them to house asylum seekers. It has been suggested that it is possible to avoid
Comparisons have also been made between these proposals and the use of ships by the UK prison service.
Between 1997 and 2006, a ship called HMP Ware was moored outside Dorset and housed around 400 prisoners to control prison overcrowding.
Following its closure, the ship’s condition was heavily criticized, with ship operators citing the ship’s high running costs, difficulty in supplying the ship, and lack of outdoor space for prisoners.
Shortly before the prison’s closure, the prison’s chief inspector described it as “oppressive and cramped” and “a container, both literally and figuratively.”
In Scotland, Ukrainian refugees have been living on a cruise ship in Glasgow since September last year.
About 1,170 people, including 420 children, live in MS Ambition, and they plan to return home once their contract with the Scottish government expires on March 31st.
MS Victoria I’s second contract at Edinburgh has been extended by five months.