Migrants may be moved to barracks
Task force will consider removing hotel housing, cutting benefits, and offshoring and return deals
MORE asylum seekers could be housed in Army barracks rather than hotels under plans to be considered by a cross-government task force.
Cabinet Office minister Stephen Barclay will chair the first meeting of the initiative early this week.
The task force will also consider whether benefits can be cut, if return agreements can be strengthened and look again at “offshoring” to third countries while claims are processed.
Craig Mackinlay, Tory MP for South Thanet, said yesterday the failure to solve the problem was “a key issue on the doorstep” adding that “it looks like state failure” which will cost votes. “We have got to stop the viability of the route,” he told the BBC’S World At One.
He added: “We should perhaps be returning straight back to France those who have made it to the British shores because at the end of the day that was the deal that was done with France.”
Another idea was to deploy British border guards to French beaches and stop the boats leaving the Continent.
Some 24,700 migrants have made the journey in small boats this year, nearly triple the number that arrived last year. Twice in the past fortnight more than 1,000 have crossed in a single day.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, asked Mr Barclay to chair the new task force after being impressed by the way he has sorted supply chain issues in the food industry. Ministers from Defence and the Foreign Office will be on the task force, with input from the Department for Transport and possibly the Department for Work and Pensions.
A source said: “It is about bringing other departments in and seeing what levers they can pull. The only people coming up with plans are the Home Secretary so far, now we are hoping everyone else can help out.”
Another source said: “The Prime Minister is very frustrated by the small boats, and the fact that numbers are increasing rapidly.”
Migrants arriving on the South Coast are taken to the Tug Haven reception facility near Dover where they are given dry clothing and have their medical needs assessed, before being moved to an immigration centre or local authority accommodation. Thousands are being put up in hotels because of a shortage of council properties. Around 8,700 were accommodated in 90 hotels across the UK in February, compared with 1,200 in March the previous year. Some £70million a year has been set aside to cover the cost of these hotels.
To address this “pull” factor, ministers will look at housing migrants in more barracks. Napier barracks in Kent is already used for migrants.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said yesterday the task force would look to address why migrants do not claim asylum in Germany or France, and instead continue on to the UK.
He told Times Radio: “If someone is genuinely there, why have they not already claimed asylum in Germany or France, why would they wait to get to Britain? I think it is right to ask these questions, to make sure this is reflected in the law and this is what the Home Secretary is doing.” The task force would look at “wider issues outside the Home Office, be it benefits or housing. It is right for the Government to work together across the board”, he said.
The task force will also look at return agreements after the Home Office disclosed last week that just five people who crossed the English Channel to Kent in small boats have been returned to the European Union this year, as well as examine “offshoring” migrants.
Richard Tice, the leader of the Reform Party, which is hoping to take votes from the disaffected Conservatives in by-elections on Dec 2 and 16 said immigration was one of a handful of key issues troubling voters.
Kevin Saunders, the former chief immigration officer for the UK Border Force, said the Channel crisis is being driven by the fact that “the UK is just too attractive” to migrants, who know they will not be removed.