Deportation staff hire aircraft hangar used in Netflix Squid Game to practise forcing asylum-seekers onto Rwanda planes

AN aircraft hangar used to film Netflix’s Squid Game reality show has been hired for deportation staff to practise forcing asylum-seekers on to planes to Rwanda.

The 146,000sq ft building on a former RAF base will be used by Home Office contractors for use-of-force training, costing £7.4million.

Alamy

The Home Office has hired Cardington Airfield hangar to practise forcing asylum-seekers on to planes to Rwanda[/caption]

TNI Press

The aircraft hangar was used to film Netflix’s Squid Game reality show[/caption]

It will cost £6.4million to rent for 15 months — with another £670,000 being spent on hiring three aircraft fuselages.

And a further £315,000 will be splurged on meals from a catering company which usually serves meals to movie stars.

Cardington Airfield in Bedfordshire has been used by movie-makers since the 1960s.

Parts of the first Star Wars film, released in 1977, were recorded there — as was 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

The studios in Hangar 2, which boasts one of the highest ceilings in the UK at 158ft, were used for two Christopher Nolan Batman films and, last year, for Netflix competition, Squid Game: The Challenge.

Details of the spending on the use-of-force project have emerged in newly published Home Office contracts.

The training is understood to cover dealing with disruptive migrants, such as those who resort to violence or who play dead by lying on the floor while being moved.

Subcontractor Mitie has been hired to carry out the training — but its costs are not included in the £7.4million.

It has previously advertised for a £36,000-a-year use-of-force instructor.

The hangar hire contract, awarded to HCP LR Cardington LP, a partnership owned by an opaque trust based in Jersey, has cost £6,425,285 and runs until the end of the year.

Shake Rattle N Roll Ltd, the movie studios’ regular caterer, has been contracted to provide 130 meals a day for five days a week until June 30 but terms allow for it to be extended.

Hiring the aircraft fuselages — an Airbus A319 and two A320s — from Air Salvage International cost £671,090.

The £7.5million hangar project is on top of the £240million the UK government has already paid to Rwanda so far.

A further payment of £50million is likely to be made in the 2024-25 financial year.

The Home Office said last night: “Since 2015, the government has had training facilities so escorts have skills they need to deal with different scenarios.”