The government is considering housing migrants on barges and ferries – despite writing the idea off several times in the past.
The potential new plan comes as home secretary Suella Braverman continues looking to reduce the hefty bill for housing asylum seekers in hotels.
At the moment, the cost of putting up around 51,000 migrants in 395 hotels comes to more than £6 million a day.
While the government will announce on Wednesday that the so called “illegal migrants” arriving to the UK from the English Channel will be housed in a few RAF sites, it also hasn’t ruled out the possibility of floating vessels as temporary accommodation.
Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab told Radio 4′s Today programme: “We will look at all of the low cost options – from barges to other low cost options.”
Although the government’s whole new approach to refugees has caused widespread concern, using floating vessels is definitely among the more outlandish suggestions.
But it’s not a new idea. So, where have we heard this before?
December 2022
Braverman said the home affairs committee “everything is still on the table” when it came to housing asylum seekers – including cruise ships.
Amnesty International condemned it, claiming it was “more distraction from the urgent task of reforming an asylum system that she and her predecessor have effectively broken”.
November 2022
The Times reported that Braverman told officials to “find new sites” including disused cruise ships and university halls of residence.
July 2022
PM Rishi Sunak suggested during the Tory leadership race that cruise ships could be used as the government needed to “deliver thousands of new beds through a range of existing and novel solutions, including the use of cruise ships”.
This was reportedly dropped in October after warnings from government lawyers it could be illegal, because the 1951 Refugee Convention prevents nations detaining asylum seekers.
October 2020
Sunak – when he was chancellor – wanted to stop housing migrants in hotels and put them on disused cruise ships.
The Times reported in July this year that the idea was “laughed off the table” by cabinet ministers at the time over the “astronomical” costs.
2010 election
According to former justice secretary and current member of the House of Lords, Ken Clarke, the Conservatives were pushed to purchase “prison ships” in 2010.
He claimed Rebekah Brooks, then the chief executive of News International which owns The Sun and the Times, asked him to “buy prison ships” to ease the capacity of the prisons.