Cruise ships to house migrants under Rishi Sunak’s plans to slash Britain’s asylum hotel bill

MIGRANTS will soon be housed on cruise ships under Rishi Sunak’s flagship pledge to stop the boats.

Two new vessels will be purchased by the Home Office to help slash Britain’s outrageous asylum hotel bill.

Alamy

Cruise ships could be used to house migrants as part of Rishi Sunak’s plan to slash the UK’s asylum hotel bill[/caption]

Reuters

The Bibby Stockholm has already been purchased by ministers and will soon be home to hundreds of migrants as they await deportation[/caption]

Reuters

On Monday Rishi Sunak visited Dover to update the public on progress towards stopping the boats[/caption]

Around £6million is spent per DAY on hotels, with some even having four and five star ratings.

No specific cruise liners have been named by ministers yet.

But The Sun understands any acquired by the Home Office would be stripped of luxury amenities, such as night clubs and saunas.

The boats would just contain the basics of a bed and board.

The vessels would join the Bibby Stockholm, which is based at Portland Port.

The giant 91-meter barge will house up to 500 men while they await deportation orders from border officials.

MPs hope the drab facility will deter illegal migrants from making the dangerous journey across the Channel.

Chartering the boat is set to cost tens of thousands of pounds every day – but ministers say that will be less than the pricy hotels many people are currently staying in.

It comes as the PM this week hailed a 20 per cent drop in the number of small boats crossing the channel on this time last year.

During a major speech in Dover, the PM insisted his plan to end illegal migration “is starting to work”.

But he warned that there’s still a “long way to go”.

Mr Sunak praised a 90% drop in the number of Albanians crossing the channel.

But just 1,800 out of tens of thousands have been kicked out of Britain.

Meanwhile, the refusal rate for modern slavery asylum claims have tripled since strict new rules around the burden of proof were introduced.

Ministers are waiting to announce where the next two barges will be located.

The PM insisted the government undertakes “extensive engagement with local communities in advance of other large sites or barges”.

Mr Sunak under huge pressure to put an end to the thousands of dinghies that land on Britain’s shores, packed full with illegal migrants.

A record 45,755 migrants made the dangerous crossing in 2022.

Since then Downing Street say they’ve hiked the number of illegal working raids by more than 50%.

And the legacy asylum backlog is down almost a fifth since December

Mr Sunak said: “Some said this problem was insoluble, or just a fact of 21st century life.

“They’d lost faith in politicians to put in the hard yards to do something about it. And of course, we still have a long way to go. But in the five months since I launched the plan, crossings are now down 20% compared to last year.

“This is the first time since this problem began that arrivals between January and May have fallen compared to the year before.”

The PM added: “With grit and determination, the Government can fix this and we are using every tool at our disposal.”