Plans for two more cruise ships for small boat migrants on ice after ports refused them permission to dock
TWO cruise ships intended to hold more small boat migrants have been refused permission to dock.
Deals for them to hold up to 1,000 more asylum seekers as they wait for their decisions to be made have been put on ice.
Ministers had acquired them on top of the Bibby Stockholm, which arrived in Dorset today, as part of bids to slash the huge £6million a day hotel bill.
Plans for one of them to be put in Liverpool has been scrapped after the port operator refused to give permission.
And one of the boats was refused docking near Edinburgh.
But the Government insisted it was still in talks to try and find a suitable place for them to go.
The Home Office declined to comment on the specific contracts.
But they said the government was looking a “range of accommodation options which offer better value for the British taxpayer than expensive hotels”.
The Bibby Stockholm barge – which will hold 500 migrants – arrived on Tuesday in Portland.
It will start taking its first passengers within the next fortnight.
But furious locals gathered to protest – and said they feared for the arrival of “bored single men” who would have nothing to do.
It comes as meddling Peers were finally defeated on the small boats bill in the Lords, after multiple rounds of so-called ‘ping pong’.
All their amendments were slapped down by MPs – and a resurgence of Tory Peers helped them to defeat yet another uprising.
The King will now sign it off – and it will become law in the coming days.
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But Rwanda flights are unlikely to take off for months to come, as ministers are still battling in the courts to prove it’s legal.
The government is gearing up for a clash in the Supreme Court before they can begin.
Downing Street said: “It’s right that we have this power in place so it can be utilised swiftly and we remain confident we will be successful in the challenge in the Supreme Court.”