The UK government is planning on buying up to ten disused ships in the hopes of housing English Channel boat migrants while avoiding the controversy of using three-star hotels or camps near rural communities, as has been the practice until now.
Authorities within the UK government are looking to purchase up to ten disused ships for the purpose of housing foreign boat migrants who have crossed the English Channel, a report on Tuesday has claimed.
The UK has seen its asylum industry overwhelmed amid the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants over the last two years, with the government being forced to rent out hotels to house illegals amid a lack of alternative housing.
Such a method of accommodating arrivals has proven extremely unpopular with Conservative Party voters, with both the high cost of the project combined with the damage it could do to tourism areas where hotels have been rented, prompting an outcry in the country.
According to a report by The Guardian, the UK Home Office now aims to help solve the housing issue by purchasing up to ten ships to house migrants on as they await the result of their asylum claims.
Officials are reportedly on the hunt for disused barges, ferries and cruise liners on the open market, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman said to be close to agreeing the purchase of one retired cruise ship that could hold nearly 2,000 people.
Another barge that can hold 400 people has already reportedly been acquired by officials, and is due to be installed in Dorset before June.
With there being a shortage of such ships on the international market however, maritime agencies are even said to be examining the feasibility of housing migrants on disused oil rigs, a plan that had previously been rejected by the government over safety concerns.
Speaking to the publication, one source from inside the government hoped that the move of housing migrants on disused boats would create a “deterrent effect” that would keep foreign arrivals away.
Such a suggestion appears to be wishful thinking however, with each and every scheme implemented by the Conservative Party in the hopes of ending the ongoing Channel Migrant Crisis failing abysmally.
The most famous of these manoeuvres is by far the plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda for them to settle there instead, with not a single foreign arrival having yet been deported to the African nation for this purpose since the plan was formally adopted.
Meanwhile, attempts to source 10,000 extra beds for migrant arrivals have gone extremely poorly, with authorities only succeeding in finding places for half that number in military camps, disused prisons and large vessels under government control.
Home Office officials have even conceded that they will likely have to hire even more hotels to look after migrants if trends continue, a move that is likely to infuriate the taxpayer in the run-up to a general election, which is due to be held in early 2025 by the latest.
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