£6,000 pizza bill for migrants arriving in Dover
THE Home Office spent more than £6,000 on Domino’s pizzas and sun hats for migrants arriving in Dover after crossing the Channel from France, figures show.
Hundreds of pizzas were bought from the Dover branch of the fast-food chain over a four week period in July at a total cost of £6,757.52, according to analysis of the government department’s spending. A further £3,960 was spent on “sun hats as requested by unions for staff and migrants” at Tug Haven migrant processing centre on the quayside at Dover.
Alp Mehmet, the chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “The situation in the Channel and Government’s way of dealing with it veers from the shambolic to the absurd and back again, while the cost of the mess goes up and up.”
The orders came in a month when at least 3,510 migrants arrived in the UK after making the crossing from France.
Yesterday, at least six boats full of migrants reached the UK, as smugglers took advantage of a gap in the poor weather of the past two weeks.
More than 17,000 migrants have reached the UK this year, more than double the 8,410 in 2020.
The Domino’s takeaways were provided while migrants were at Tug Haven, the short-term holding facility in Dover, where they are first taken from the beach or sea.
The most expensive entry, £1,824, was for a “large number of migrants” who had been in the compound for over 12 hours, and “were likely to stay over 24 hours due to issues blocking their movement with resources and the Irc (immigration removal centre) estate”.
In another entry bought by the Clandestine Operational Response Team it was stated that “due to the high number of migrants arriving and the length of time they had not eaten, it was agreed to purchase 200 pizzas”.
Three other Domino’s pizza entries, for £1,274.25, £1,000 and £870.27, were listed as “hot food for migrants who had to stay overnight at Tug Haven”.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to delivering the best value for money for the British taxpayer. We ensure all spending is carefully [scrutinised].”
Last year a watchdog said that Tug Haven “resembled a rubble-strewn building site”.
Inspectors found that migrants “almost always” arrived wet and cold and then “often had to spend hours in the open air or in cramped containers”.
Peter Clarke, the then chief inspector of prisons, said: “Just because numbers are unprecedented, that does not mean they are unpredictable, or cannot be planned for”, adding that the arrangements at Tug Haven were not fit for even small numbers of arrivals.
It came as a gang leader who boasted of smuggling more than 100 women into the UK using lorries and small boats was jailed for 10 years.
Nzar Jabar Mohamad, from Hull, was secretly recorded by National Crime Agency investigators telling criminal associates in Europe: “I brought too many women, I swear to God I can say I brought more than a hundred over.”
‘The situation in the Channel and government’s way of dealing with it veers from the shambolic to the absurd and back again’