Ministers urged to stick with Rwanda plan to ‘cut £8m-a-day bill for hotels’
Ministers were warned to end the “madness” as the bill for housing migrants in hotels hit £8million a day.
The Home Office, headed by Suella Braverman, is now spending more than £3billion every year on accommodating asylum seekers, a shock report revealed yesterday.
The cost has rocketed by another third since ministers admitted it was £6million a day in April.
Tory MPs warned the spiralling cost is “unsustainable” and urged ministers to lay the groundwork for the first deportation flight to Rwanda after a Supreme Court ruling, expected in November.
Alp Mehmet, chair of campaigners Migration Watch, said: “If the Government doesn’t get a grip of this utter madness quickly, it will only get worse. While the poor old put-upon taxpayer foots the bill. This is so unfair.”
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Former immigration minister Kevin Foster suggested an RAF plane could be used for the first flight to Rwanda.
He said: “Once refused, removal needs to follow swiftly, either to their home country, as is being done successfully with Albania, or to Rwanda, a country which specialises in resettlement.
“Ahead of the court judgement the Government should make plans for further legal changes if the courts again frustrate the Rwanda plan, alongside putting the logistics in place to deliver it, including use of military aircraft if civilian charters cannot be found.
“A plane taking off for Rwanda would be the biggest symbol of change, smashing the business model of the people traffickers and ending the use of hotels as asylum accommodation.”
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Hard-pressed Britons will be shocked by the size of this bill.
“The Government is paying eye-watering sums for migrant hotels. Ministers must get to grips with the system to bring costs down.”
The first deportation flight to Rwanda was delayed by an 11th-hour injunction issued by the European Court of Human Rights. The plane was on the tarmac ready to take off but the flight was prevented from leaving.
The scheme is a key plank of the Illegal Migration Act, which gives the Government powers to detain and remove those who arrive in the UK illegally.
Officials fear the flagship legislation cannot be fully effective unless it is up and running.
Some 51,000 asylum seekers are currently in hotel rooms, with around 175,000 awaiting a decision.
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David Jones, a former minister and the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said: “This is unsustainable and underlines the need to stop the boats. We need to implement the Rwanda scheme and to do that probably need to legislate to disapply the European convention on human rights.”
Officials believe using old military sites – such as RAF Coningsby, former home of the Dambusters – and barges will slash costs.
But they face local legal challenges to bases being used and the Government’s first asylum barge – the Bibby Stockholm – was marred with problems after it moored in Portland, Dorset.
There was a delay in moving the first migrants on board amid fire safety concerns and 39 men were moved off within days after a Legionella outbreak.
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